SMART CITIES - CHALLENGES AHEAD

Smart Cities- Challenges Ahead

Urban migration trends:

It is expected that world urban population will double by the year 2050. As the urbanization already reached the peak in major developed countries, now it is the turn of developing countries (90% present urbanization is from developing countries) and India is taking the lead. India's urban population is 31% at present with 60% contribution to GDP; it's expected to grow to over 40% by 2030 with over 70% GDP contribution.

In India till mid90s the urban migration is mainly into manufacturing sector as industrial wage laborers, skilled employment other than rich farmers shift from agriculture to business. Later the manufacturing sector witnessed stagnation and migration is happening into IT & other service sectors. The recent trends in migration is from farming class, as the dry land cultivation is increasingly unviable coupled with influence of urbanization, the unskilled/uneducated people are migrating to cities to work as daily wagers, domestic help, security guards, drivers etc. This unhealthy migration/uncertain employment coupled with increased costs in cities are often leading into a situation of road side huts, pressure on services, increased crime etc in cities. As the quality of migration is poor, the contribution to GDP through migration is also not proportionate.

Global smart cities:

Europe urbanization phenomena coupled with industrialization happened mostly in 19th century. In fact Europe was importing food during those days itself due to urbanization. USA & Canada followed Europe in urbanization. Though the urbanization is very old in these countries, most of them could reach certain levels of smartness due to prevailing congenial conditions in these countries & cities. Older cities like New York, London, Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Vienna, Barcelona, Copenhagen , fairly recent cities like Arlington (Virginia), Columbus( Ohio), Rio De Janerio, New Taipei(Taiwan) etc are the best examples of smart cities. India being a true democracy with varied cultures, social strata, levels of education,  certainly have to work with a totally different strategy within the broad guidelines of smart cities. The western country models will not be suitable to India, may be Taiwan experiences can be looked into.    

Indian urban scenario:

India shall learn lessons from the abnormal growth witnessed in cities like Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Kochi etc and the problems such as mushroomed unauthorized constructions ( For example in Bangalore in 40x30 plot earlier one to two families used to live,  now due to IT boom resulting in demand for rentals , on the same plot one can see 200 to 400 % additional construction and on an average accommodating four to five families), huge burden on civic services, very bad condition of roads, many fold increase in vehicles resulting in pollution and traffic congestions, roadside living, increase in crime etc.

With these experiences, the urban development in India has to be reviewed critically taking the present situations into consideration. May be it is wise to built new cities instead of congesting older cities even if call them satellite / extensions. The main problem is with extension of quality services through extension to existing services. In fact we had the best examples of Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Bhubaneswar, and New Raipur. The latest conceptualization of Amravati, new capital city of AP is the best example of a new smart city covering all requirements. The land pooling, leveraging of resources, meticulous planning, and execution shall make this as best example for the country.

The concept of smart economy, smart people, smart Governance, smart mobility, smart environment, smart living are to be made part of our existing systems so that the new emerging cities will not have the burden of existing inefficient and corrupt systems.           

 Need of land banks :

Ministry of Urban Development, GOI initially announced 100 cities, followed by few more as potential smart cities in a time frame of 5 years. As it is announced the cities are going to be made smarter by restructuring the existing infrastructure,  services, housing, transport, safety & security, IT, E governance, good education, health facilities etc. After going through the list of cities selected , it is felt that it's a real challenging task ahead and unless until major restructuring happen in Political & Administrative systems,  people's participation the smart city objectives will not be achieved.

In any city development, urban land plays vital role. Though the land is defined as national asset, few individuals have control over major valuable lands. Often Governments are also finding it difficult to take up public works properly due to shortage of lands in their possession .The ruling Governments alienated/alienating lands in favor of private ownerships for reasons best known to them. In order to achieve the objective of affordable housing particularly for poor, the Government has to have sufficient land banks in all pockets of city.  It is very important for Governments to develop land banks and preserve lands for future requirements/developments.

The possible means of land banks include:

·         Protect all existing Government lands, bring out the stringent acts to deal with land grabbers, immediate court settlements etc.

·         There is a act stating that no individual is permitted to own more than 1000 sqm of urban land. If this act is implemented in sprit, huge chunks of urban land will become surplus and the present exorbitant prices will come down drastically. Similar control has to come in ownership of constructed area of apartments as well as commercial spaces and also real estate ownership under the cover of companies.

·         At present in a layout development 40% of the land is allocated for roads, common facilities etc and 60% for housing/commercials. Instead if the rules are changed in such a way that additional 25 % land has to be contributed to Government pool for housing for poor, highways, utilities etc , the major problem of land will be addressed.

·         The large extent of lands within cities not subjected to layouts, industrial lands converted into residential/commercial zones are escaping from the existing 40% common areas rule. While approving plans the Governments take the 40% land and permission is given for balance.   

  

·         At present the apartment/commercial plans are given on plot sizes as low as 500 sq yards, due to which the developments are looking crumbled with major parking issues. All the new approvals shall be in the mode of land pooling of viable size (few acres as single lot).

·         All the individual bungalows, upper middle class housing approvals the maid/driver etc housing as part of the facility shall be made mandatory. This will reduce the burden on affordable housing to poor to some extent and will be more convenient to the house owner.

·         There is huge variation on card values and real values in real estate. In order to curb black money into real estate the Governments has to take appropriate steps such as Government taking over the land at Rs.1/- higher than the value declared for registration and use it for public purpose.

·         Bulk lands in any city, particularly in peripheral/satellite areas are under control of very few individuals having influence over political/administrative setup. They ensure that the Governments spent few thousand Crores of public for creating infrastructure, also ensure that their lands are protected and become focal areas after the developments. Their lands are appreciating in value by many folds at the cost of public funding. Government has to bring in a system wherein the cost & benefits are shared proportionately.

Let us hope that the Governments realize the need for land banks and act accordingly and implement the systems and procedures in the larger interest of the country rather than few individuals.

Insights

Smart Governance have to play vital role in emerging smart cities/satellite towns and even in existing cities for improving quality of service delivery.  Already Governments are investing huge funds into technology, software, trainings, exposure visits to world best cities etc. Certainly there are certain positive changes, but not to the desired levels. Its real challenge for Urban Development Ministry (UD) as an umbrella organization to influence various states to monitor the impact through measurable indicators and the system should prevail to punish the guilt. Unless until it is taken seriously, the smart cities may not be in place on target or even it may remain as concept.

Human resources play a key role in implementing the systems. There is need for assessment of skills of existing manpower, match their skill sets with the software, technologies in place and ensures that right person is put in right place. Recently skills assessment was done in one Government department by a team in which I am a member (Not Municipal Administration) and observed that they are below average (2/10). I am sure; this may be the case with many departments including municipal administration. The staff profile of urban development/municipal administration (MAD) include direct recruitments, promotes, compassionate appointments etc and generally protected by unions, political parties. The reasons for low quality include lack of exposure, unethical environment, reaching positions more through influence, greasing, unethical means rather than merit. Two days back it was in news, for an appointment in MAD on compassionate grounds the demand was in few Lakhs. Having spent so much money for getting appointment, getting posted to coveted seats, they try to squeeze public to get decent ROI. All these are happening presently and the same lot is going to work for smart cities. Without touching upon these field issues/realities, how can we project very rosy situations and create imaginative cities. Don't you think if these are not addressed seriously, the amounts proposed to spend on smart cities will by and large go into drains and concept will remain as myth?           

The factual situation in our cities/towns at present is reflected as below:

• There is well knitted organization setup, technology, systems in place to know the quality of roads/drains/other civic amenities. In reality the worst affected roads/water supply/drainage etc are not repaired on priority. The priority is being given to political influence, administrative influence, affluence followed by people with voice. FOR DOING THIS NO NEED FOR ANY SYSTEMS.

• For giving water connections, well documented computerized systems are in place, but still one has to apply grease to get the connection, otherwise it will be kept on hold or reject on some manmade technical grounds. While actual connection is given, if one apply more grease, on paper 1/2" connection will become 3/4" or 1" in filed and imagine how much loss to Government exchequer.

• Municipal drains often over flow & water is under supplied in slums & below middle class localities and in affluent areas drains will have smooth flow & water supply is normal or over supplied. We have beautiful systems & software to capture the ground realities???

• Well defined GPRS/Google based systems are in place for building plan approvals. In practice sites where cellars are already dug, footings/even one or two slabs are laid, close to nallas/water bodies etc, plans are being approved.

• I was observing a building under construction, setback norms were floated and columns are coming in setbacks. Last two months none of the concerned from Government visited and one slab was casted. Yesterday morning I observed them coming to site and shouting loudly. I am sure the ground situation will be traded for a cost.

• It's an open secret that municipal staff only encourages illegal constructions/extra floors etc and there is a rate for each slab. Couple of years back , we came across a situation where mushroomed illegal constructions were ordered to demolish and the people who were instrumental for construction were engaged in demolition and public openly questioned them.

• Again well defined systems are put into practice for tax assessment, but the rate of taxation varies depending on the weight of grease we apply. Is it system fault or administers fault? 

The above are very few real life incidents happening at present are brought to your notice. I am sure all of us must be experiencing much more in day to day life. As we are middle class in thinking, we compromise and move forward, passing on the unclean thrash to our future generations. There are some good things happening like online bill payments.

Requesting administers/political system to focus more on ground realities, address them as part integral strategy of smart cities, so that desired results will be achieved.

B G Reddy -9866889246

grbonthu@gmail.com