Modi's Smart City dream: Minister Naidu’s 10 commandments are a tall task for cities

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s smart city initiative is likely to bring about a sea change in the way local self governing bodies operate, but the path to achieve is a difficult one Indian cities to traverse. “It will not be business as usual in the matter of financing of cities and towns under new urban initiatives,” Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu is learnt to have said at a closed door meeting of municipal commissioners of 130 cities. “…Instead, it will be based on the ability of urban local bodies to reform urban governance and rise to the new challenges,” he said. These city commissioners wanted to hear about how could they become part of the smart city initiative of the government. After the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) ended in 2012, there has not been any central funding for cities. Naidu said his ministry is working on a ‘city challenge’ framework with the objective of selecting the right city candidates for participation in schemes like building 100 smart cities and development of 500 cities and towns. “While addressing the issue of geographical spread, only the deserving will be assisted,” he is learnt to have said. Naidu also presented a 10-point charter that cities will have to meet if they want to be part of the smart city challenge. 1. City Master Plans (CMP) wherever due and City Sanitation Plans: This is the first major point on the charter and almost every city has a master plan except very small city, but the challenge is the quality of these plans. Master Plans are geo-spatial plan which rarely capture even the existing development or expanse of the city. The parameter will have to be further refined by the ministry to take into account how can a master plan be developed taking into account not only current development using satellite mapping of habitation but also how will the future growth be planned. These plans have to be digital and GIS mapping should be mandatory. City sanitation plan has been clubbed with the master plan but it is an important component, and should incorporate waste disposal plan. [caption id=“attachment_2057005” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu. IBNLive image[/caption] 2. Long Term Urban Development Plans (LTUDP) for district headquarters focusing on 25 km radius: This is an important plan. No city currently does this; neither is it getting the required attention. The bigger problem for both CMP and LTUDP is availability of capable people in the state to develop them. Cartographers, who currently develop CMPs, are not best placed to do this level of planning. Maybe, Naidu has to allocate a separate budget for getting these plans made. 3. Long Term City Mobility Plans: Again the lack of capability both at state and Centre level will hamper the development of such plans. Institute of Urban Transportation that is responsible for forecasting traffic projection is the only body that has some capability but has a limited expanse. 4. City-specific strategies for promotion of renewable energy sources: This can be effectively outsourced as there are several companies now in India capable of building plants based on solar, wind and waste. 5. Regulatory bodies for pricing of utilities like water and power and assessment and revision of taxes from time to time to enhance resource base. 6. Taking necessary initiatives for assessing credit worthiness of each city to mobilize resources from appropriate sources. 7. Promotion of water harvesting and water recycling on a large scale through necessary provisions by revising building bye-laws in line with emerging needs of cities and aspirations of people 8. Promoting citizens in urban planning, decision making and management; 9. Capacity building in key disciplines; and 10. Improving urban governance through adoption of ICT platforms to ensure accountability and transparency besides online delivery of various services. The 10 points by the Minister are interesting and almost out of reach of even the biggest cities and the states. Just giving a list of demands and hoping that city commissioners will be able to do meet it is expecting too much. Most cities do not have the mandate and hence the resources to meet any of these requirements. To meet these demands the central government will have to give funding to ensure that they are done. Even under the JNNURM, cities had a budget to hire an outside firm to develop or propose projects that they could use to access funds. The now-defunct Planning Commission also had laid down norms so that it would be easy for the cities to build projects. Despite all these, JNNURM was a failure. Most of the projects under the mission pertained with digging ditches and laying down water and sewerage links for the city. These are the most important and basic infrastructure that any city requires. But they never had enough funds for these projects, neither before JNNURM not after it. K Yatish Rajawat is a senior journalist based in Delhi. He tweets @yatishrajawat