Urban Update April 2016

ISSN 2349-6266 RNI No DELENG/2014/57384

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

UrbanUpdate Volume III, Issue IV

Rs 100

April 2016

Special Edition South Asian Cities Summit-2016 Smart Cities - Aspirations and Challenges

In this special edition, Urban Update brings you a formidable lineup of urban planners, policy makers, journalists, researchers and academicians—across sectors and disciplines—who share their views on a range of issues concerning our cities. They transmit a sense of confidence that, despite the rising problems, there is enough firepower to ensure that our cities march towards sustainability

The project is funded by the European Union.

The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

Union Ministry of Urban Development has empanelled AIILSG on the list of consultants qualified to work for Smart City Mission.

AIILSG has been selected to work for Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

Community Based Interventions

Professional Empowerment Project Management

Advisory Services Customised Training

Knowledge Management Capacity Building Information, Education and Communication (IEC)

Policy Research

All India Institute of Local Self-Government No. 6, F-Block, Bandra Kurla Complex, TPS Road-12, Bandra-East, Mumbai-400051, Maharashtra Tel.No.: +91-22-26571713, 26571714, 26571715, Fax: +91-22-26572286, Email: contact@aiilsg.org

UrbanUpdate A monthly magazine published by the AIILSG — a project funded by European Union’s ‘Equi-City’ programme for India.

Ranjit Chavan President-AIILSG Capt. Anant Modi Editor-In-Chief Director General-AIILSG, dg@aiilsg.org Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor Abhishek Pandey Editor Ravi Ranjan Guru Executive Editor

Mail Box Readers’ comments, criticism and suggestions are welcome. Letters to the Editor can be sent by e-mail, or regular mail. They should include name, address, phone number(s), and e-mail address, if available. The subject of the communication should be clearly mentioned, and we reserve the right to edit for sense, style, and space.

Address Urban Update (All India Institute of Local Self-Government) Sardar Patel Bhavan, 22-23, Institutional Area, D Block Pankha Road, Janakpuri, Delhi-110058 or E-mail at urbanupdate@outlook.com FOR SUBSCRIPTION AND ADVERTISING RELATED ASSISTANCE, CONTACT Phone: 011 - 2852 1783/ 5473 (Extn. 37) E-mail: contacturbanupdate@gmail.com

Lojy Thomas Associate Editor Meenakshi Rajput Graphic Designer Nitin Rajput Circulation Executive Volume III - Issue II Printed and published by Ranjit Chavan on behalf of All India Institute of Local Self-Government.

Printed at Utkarsh Enterprises, 1893, 1st Floor, Uday Chand Marg Kotla Mubarak Pur, New Delhi-110003 Published at Sardar Patel Bhavan, 22-23, Institutional Area D-Block Pankha Road, Janakpuri, Delhi-110058 Despite careful selection of sources, no responsibility can be taken for accuracy of the contents. The magazine assumes no liability or responsibility of any kind in connection with the information thereof. The views expressed in the articles are the personal opinions of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the All India Institute of Local Self-Government. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited without written permission from the publisher.

Join Urban Update Community Online to read our previous issues, regular posts and news updates.

WWW

urbanupdate.in urbanupdate.mag urbanupdate.mag urbanupdate.mag

The project is funded by the European Union.

The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

4

April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

EDITORIAL

Empowered local bodies, efficient cities

Capt. Anant Modi Editor-In-Chief dg@aiilsg.org

Clearly ULBs in the region have been facing tough challenges in the last few decades.

The institutional framework in many countries is seen as unclear with high degree of dependence on higher tiers of government for decision making with respect to service delivery obligations, user charge levies and most importantly financial resources

“We are committed to remain a carbon neutral country for all time” says Tshering Tobgay the Prime Minister of Bhutan, the small Himalayan kingdom in South Asia.

During a TED Talk, he outlined the various measures his country has been taking to remain carbon neutral during these times of climate change with the potential for catastrophic events.Such actions hold hope for South Asian countries in times of rapid urbanization, often termed ‘messy’ in a World Bank report. Rapid urbanization has resulted among others, in high levels of air pollution. The ambient air quality, represented by the high incidence of particulate matter of size less than 2.5 microns, is so poor in South Asia that 19 of the world’s 20 developing country cities with the poorest air quality are in the region. The significance of South Asian urbanisation is very relevant in the global context. With 23% of the world population and about 15% of its urban population what happens in South Asia matters. The region’s urban population is forecast to grow by 250 million by 2030, on top of the 130 million it grew by in the ten years between 2001 and 2011.This rapid urbanisation has been accompanied by the pressures of urban poverty and unemployment. Nearly 130 million of the urban population lives in sub-optimal, informal settlements; in slums or slum-like conditions. It is estimated that South Asia contributes 8% of the world GDP while accounting for 14% of the global urban population. The World Bank report referred above observes that inspite of strong growth in the last 15 years, this low share of global GDP means that the region has not been successful in leveraging the gains of urbanization in achieving higher productivity and prosperity.

Clearly ULBs in the region have been facing tough challenges in the last few decades. Among the primary reasons for this is empowerment. The institutional framework in many countries is seen as unclear with high degree of dependence

on higher tiers of government for decision making with respect to service delivery obligations, user charge levies and most importantly financial resources. In India for example, even with its federal government structure giving rise to a strong intermediate tier of state/provincial government, devolution of authority to the local bodies is considered modest rather than robust.

Further, the extent of devolution varies across states/provinces.

Financial resources of local bodies are another crucial area restricting their ability to perform. Broadly, own resources, transfers from higher tiers and borrowings are the three main sources of funding for ULBs. The last, borrowing is virtually absent in the context of most of the region given the low creditworthiness of ULBs. This mode however has the maximum potential and governments are now trying to put in place necessary frameworks which will enable local borrowing through taxfree bonds and the like. This will in turn impart much needed transparency and accountability in the ULB finances.

As regards own resources, ULBs have limited leeway in fixing rates of taxes (mainly property tax) and also do not have efficient collection and enforcement measures to exploit this avenue. Levy of user charges is politically sensitive and does not permit full cost recovery. That leaves transfers from the national and state/ provincial governments as the main source of revenues. These transfers from higher tiers often come with strings attached or conditions. An example is India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) which was project and performance linked. Hence there is need for substantial reform in ULB finances.

At the forth coming Third South Asian Cities Summit, we would have the opportunity to discuss and debate all the above and many more aspects concerning cities of the region. I look forward to seeing you at the summit.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

5

Quotes

PIN POINT

BUZZ

Nitin Gadkari Minister, Road Transport & Highways & Shipping @nitin_gadkari

Imposition of ‘odd-even’ car-rationing scheme in Delhi is a “consequence” of unsustainable urban development practices followed over the years.

Haphazard urban expansion over the years led to distortions like lack of access to urban spaces, severe infrastructure deficit, poor quality of life and unsustainable urban development

Cities are not for the affluents or the haves of the society but for the underprivileged.

Unless we integrate them in the planning process, the development of cities cannot be sustainable. There is a need for more interaction between the government and the citizens Devendra Fadnavis Chief Minister, Maharashtra

NHAI will deepen ponds and lakes and will use the removed silt for road construction

UN Environment @UNEP

Drought affects 330 million in India.

Many are heading towards #cities in search for water

M Venkaiah Naidu Union Minister of Urban Development

Brent Toderian Former Chief Planner for Vancouver @BrentToderian

Generally, the level of urbanization is over 60 per cent in developed economies. It will take time for India to achieve that level. Within two to three decades India’s urbanization should be 60 per cent. But that would require 7-9 per cent economic growth.

Everything in a city is related to the availability of public space: communication, traffic circulation, space for laying out infrastructure, common services … In well-planned cities, the public street pattern takes up between 30 and 35% of each neighbourhood – but a huge number of cities are very far away on this range

Arvind Panagariya Vice-chairman, Niti Aayog

Dr Joan Clos Executive Director, UN-Habitat

6

April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Cities are the engines of our economy, the overwhelming home for our populations, the centres for creativity & solutions to sustainability

IndiaSpend @IndiaSpend

Parking in Indian cities 13 times cheaper than in China, more than 20 times lower than in Singapore

Inside

Special Edition South Asian Cities Summit-2016 Smart Cities - Aspirations and Challenges

Volume 3, Issue 4

Leader Speak

8

Inside April 2016

Reimagining our cities All tiers of governments face multiple challenges in running cities in a way that continues to create economic prosperity while not straining land and resources

Opinion

10

Marching together for sustainability

12

Public spaces paramount for building great cities

Public spaces change the way people live in a city, and help them to connect with their cities. City governments need to ensure that they are for everyone and are not violated, invaded, abandoned or ignored

14

17

An integrated approach and better co-ordination between governments, local bodies and other stakeholders working for sustainable development is the key to better urban future

Financing for smart city mission Government of India has many urban development schemes. Cities should avail finances available from all the urban missions and other Government programs as they are interlinked with each other

Making urban infrastructure, services accessible to all

Growth of urbanization in India, as elsewhere, brings the issue of inclusiveness and accessibility of public infrastructure and services into greater focus

20

Safety in Cities The issue of safety has become an integral part of discourse on cities. For a holistic understanding, the concept of safety has to be understood in the broader framework of the urban space

RegularS

6 40 50

Pin Point Newscan Urban Agenda

22

Upgrade cities for a greener tomorrow Making cities energy efficient should be the top priority of governments in all developing countries as it will not only save energy and cut Greenhouse Gas emissions but also improve financial health of ULBs

24

Smart city: The next leap for urban India

28

The missing artist in Indian city!

30

We need Haste; no more time to Waste

32

24 x 7 water supply a distant dream for Indian cities!

Cities need to take a greener path to growth, both the crisis in availability of water and gaps in distribution are growing with increasing burden on existing resources and infrastructure

Making existing cities smarter and pro-poor offers greater dividends than building new cities. Financial viability, strong local governance and evolved transportation is the need of the hour

European cities traditionally used artists to beautify their cities in more ways than one. American ones too did not lag behind and later, some Asian cities followed suit. But not India. A look within…

Waste management in the developing countries need a serious attention to ensure sustainable measures are adopted to maintain urban ecology

34

Innovations to usher urban sustainability

36

The Dark Side of India’s Urban Development

Cities worldwide have been at the forefront of generating new ideas. Blooming innovations have ensured that civil societies become prosperous and socially responsible in functioning

Slum-dwellers are considered ‘encroachers’.

Planning of new cities should consider the requirements of informer workers and slum dwellers to make urban development inclusive

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

7

Leaderspeak | Sustainable Development

Ranjit S Chavan President, AIILSG

Reimagining our cities Discussion on sustainable urban development has taken centre stage in the backdrop of rising urban problems globally. All tiers of governments face multiple challenges in developing and running cities in a way that continues to create economic prosperity and employment while not straining land and resources, and without negatively affecting our environment

U

rban infrastructure in most of our cities has been built to cater to the requirements and demands of the people living and moving into cities, without giving much thought to ecological sustainability. The natural disasters taking place in our urban areas, like flooding in Chennai a few months ago, are the warning signs telling us that we are building our cities wrong. The studies show that wetlands in Chennai were encroached upon and natural drainages were blocked that led to such a situation that caused many deaths and damage of millions. It is high time for city leadership to augment the pace of building city resilience to ensure a safe future for their cities.

Urban Sustainability

Cities are on the frontlines of climate impacts and urgently need to build resilience, with more than 80 per cent of the overall annual global costs of adaption to climate change estimated to be borne by urban areas, according to the

8

April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

World Bank.

Urban infrastructure is largely built without giving much thought to ecological sustainability. A resource-intensive consumer society drives urban lifestyles, contributing significantly to the pressure on urban ecosystems. Public representatives and municipal officials need to strive together to create stronger and independent institutions at a local level to look after the city management in a sustainable way.

Urban planners and city leadership should chalk out an integrated model for environmental management, where all use of land, air and water is planned across sectors, so that growing and sometimes conflicting demands on ecosystems can be managed effectively. Cities also need to focus on research and development for exploring

innovative approaches to solve local problems. Local bodies in India lack high-quality R&D infrastructure which is a significant driver of sustainability.

There are other challenges local bodies face that emerge out of ineffective governance structures, lack of autonomy of urban local bodies, lack of co-ordination between various bodies involved in urban management, and lack of financial independence It is the responsibility of policymakers at national and international levels to devise a strategy through which transition to sustainable development becomes possible for our cities because it will not be enough if only a handful of major cities make the transition to sustainable development. All small and emerging cities too have to follow sustainable measures in order to achieve the targets set under Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations last year.

SDGs and the role of cities

The 11th Sustainable Development Goal says, ‘Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’. Cities in developing countries need to take a giant leap to achieve this goal by 2030. Around 3.5 billion people live in cities and out of them, 828 million people live in slums. The rapid pace of urbanization is exerting pressure on fresh water supplies, sewage, the living environment, and public health.

If we take the example of Mumbai that is considered the economic capital of India, has around 50 per cent population living in slums. People living in slums are just not reflecting the housing problem in cities but also of equitable delivery of basic amenities.

There are hundreds of thousands slum settlements in cities across the country which are not recognized and these

Highlights: Urban Data ♦♦ Half of humanity – 3.5 billion people – lives in cities today ♦♦ By 2030, almost 60 per cent of the world’s population will live in urban areas ♦♦ 95 per cent of urban expansion in the next decades will take place in the developing world ♦♦ 828 million people live in slums today and the number keeps rising ♦♦ The situation in urban India: Almost 8% of India’s urban households requiring travel beyond 100 metres to access drinking water.

Source: United Nations and Government of India (https://data.gov.in)

settlements do not get basic amenities such as sanitation, health, sewage and water because they are not existent on paper. SDG strives to ‘ensure adequate, safe and affordable housing with basic amenities for all by 2030’.

The Government of India has already launched Housing for All scheme through which it targets to provide housing to one and all by 2022. It aims to benefit resident families that do not own formal settlements and will cover over 4,000 towns during its execution phase. The programme supports the development of affordable housing (of up to 30 square metres) with basic civic infrastructure such as water, sanitation, sewerage, roads and electricity. This is an enormous task seeing the existing gap in the housing sector. There is need to solve the housing crisis not only by building affordable houses but also look at alternative options like rental housing and upgradation of slums. These initiatives though, need

a systematic mechanism to achieve the desired outcome. Governments can also plan for high density housing projects in cities which can bring efficiency gains by reducing resource and energy consumption. It is also important to consult different stakeholders and research institutions to execute such projects to find out successful approaches for execution.

Another target set under the SDG-11 is to ‘enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries’.

It also aims to strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage. Union government in India has launched the rejuvenation programs and heritage conservation plans for cities and Smart Cities Mission. The objectives of these schemes are aligned with the target set under SDG.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

9

Article | Sustainable Development Goals

Public Space built by Local Government of Jakarta

Marching together for sustainability An integrated approach and better co-ordination between governments, local bodies and other stakeholders working for sustainable development is the key to better urban future

UCLG-ASPAC Team

10

April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has become the spirit that drives every effort of international organizations, national and local governments and many others to ensure each goal’s implementation. As the largest network of local governments in Asia-Pacific region, UCLG ASPAC has been aligning its Advocacy, Capacity Building, Policy and Research, Programs, and Decentralized Cooperation Strategies towards the 17 SDGs, in agreement to contribute to the Post-2015 global agenda until 2030.

It is widely acknowledged that improving participation of local government is

essential to achieve the SDGs. Responding to this, UCLG ASPAC, in cooperation with European Commission’s Policy Forum Development, held a Focus Group Discussion on the commitment of SDGs implementation in Indonesia. Serving as the kick-starter of a study identifying channels to improve participation, this event brought together key persons and representatives from Indonesia’s local authorities and civil society organizations. The FGD, held in March 2016, is part of a global study, in which 4 other countries participated -- Peru, Botswana, Lebanon, and the Netherlands.

The Asia-Pacific Conference on “Local

Government Voices toward Habitat III on the New Urban Agenda” is another event to unite the commitment of local governments in implementing the SDGs. Held in Wakatobi, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia on 11 September 2015, the Conference gained attention from more than 170 delegates from cities, local governments, their associations and international partners in the Asia-Pacific region. It emphasized the importance of good governance, sustainable urbanization, the need to shift to low carbon societies, to tackle climate change and spread the benefits of economic prosperity that

cities produce. This event delivered the “Wakatobi Declaration on the New Urban Agenda”, unifying the delegates in voicing their commitments to create an enabling environment for the New Urban Agenda. One focus of the Declaration is to work together towards the implementation of SDG 11, making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Addressing challenges in the region

Uneven economic growth between local and regional territory in most developing countries is another issue to be addressed for sustainable growth. Making an impact to reduce the economic gaps in a country, the issue is exacerbated by modes of production such as the replacement of human labor due to technological advances, as well as transformation of production system in the countryside. As a result, the problem requires greater attention and action.

Local Economic Development (LED) offers the solution for shaping the social economy based on people. It is a bottomup approach to create wealth and jobs. It refers to the dynamics of enabling economies happening in certain territories. The main challenge for local and regional governments is to increase and diversify the productive base.

Today’s focus is on creating employment in the third economy sector. Under this framework, UCLG ASPAC, together with UCLG

World, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Federation of Sri Lankan Local Government Authorities (FSLGA) organized a workshop in Negombo, Sri Lanka, from 9 to 12 December 2015 to begin addressing the SDGs at the local level, with a specific focus on SDG 8 around LED. The meeting gathered Southwest Asian members and partners and experts from the Netherlands, the Philippines, Spain and South Africa. UCLG ASPAC provided the avenue for creating a first action plan for the learning agenda around SDGs for Local Governments of participating cities and Local Government Associations, as well as a report on LED and local authorities in Asia. All outcomes of the event are based on local knowledge, practices and identified needs, as the participants were political and technical representatives of Local Authorities, Local Government Associations and Training Centers for Local Governments from several Asian countries (Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India, Japan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines and South Korea). SDG 11 also takes form in the provision of green and public spaces.

Surabaya City in Indonesia has been implementing this vision through creating public spaces.

With growing number of Surabaya citizens, UCLG ASPAC sees the need to create more spaces for public and optimize the existing land. As UCLG ASPAC recognizes this

opportunity, UN-HABITAT with its previous successful completion of public space project in various countries, has expressed its interest to work in Indonesia.

Upon several initial meetings and consultations, UN-HABITAT, UCLG ASPAC, and Surabaya City government agreed to take forward the discussion into the implementation phase. There will be three sites to be utilized for this project which will be commemorated during the PrepComIII of Habitat III in July this year.

Public space management has been a recent phenomenon in emerging countries like Indonesia.

Becoming the second most populated city in Indonesia and considering its success in recent years in developing more public spaces, Surabaya acknowledges it still needs to do a lot to improve its public spaces, among which many are still not used properly. If those spaces are well managed, quality of life will be improved, recreational function is available that creates a happier living.

On implementation, the project activities will be done through participatory approaches for the development and empowerment of communities for collaborative efforts towards the rehabilitation and maintenance of public spaces. The project will also use Minecraft game in designing the initial plan as part of the efforts to take advantage of the growing technology innovation and also to attract youth

community to be more involved in development process. One of the major objectives of the project is to capacitate local people in development activities as well as to build a sense of ownership. Successful project implementation of Public Space has been conducted by local government of Jakarta is RPTRA project (Child Friendly Integrated Public Space).

One of the unique qualities of UCLG ASPAC’s collaboration with Surabaya City Government on Public Space improvement project is on youth and community involvement in the process of design, implementation and monitoring. These targeted groups will also be involved as part of the sustainability project, in which they will be the end users. This project is significant because small-scale urban design interventions and planning projects enable more innovative and inclusive roles for the community.

Getting involved in the development process improves community engagement and reduces the barriers of ownership.

Furthermore, it encourages working in collaboration with other stakeholders for maintaining and securing their public space.

None of the projects is detached from facing challenges. Scarcity of land, availability of necessary funds, and conflicts over the ownerships are some of the challenges faced by Surabaya City in providing safer and more secure public spaces especially for women and children.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

11

Article | Urban Life

Public spaces paramount for building great cities When we think of cities, we tend to think of skyscrapers, crowded metros and buses, noisy cabs, glitzy markets and their vibrant public spaces. Public spaces change the way people live in a city, improve social cohesion and help people to connect with their cities. City governments need to design and maintain them with community engagement to ensure that they are for everyone and are not violated, invaded, abandoned or ignored

Abhishek Pandey Editor, Urban Update ap.urbanupdate@gmail.com

12

April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Cities are the hubs of economic activities and employment opportunities.

They offer superior lifestyle. The quality urban infrastructure is the foundation for their sustenance. All governments are making efforts to improve urban infrastructure and civic amenities in their respective cities to make life easier and comfortable for their residents. Cities are also about people and social interaction. And, public spaces in cities enable citizens to interact, relax,

play and escape from the rapidly-changing and demanding urban life.

Public spaces—parks, squares or chauks, traditional markets, and small plazas—have been integral part of urban design. Traditional Indian cities gave due importance to public places where citizens can interact with each other. There were ghaats, lake side, market areas, gardens and squares at the end of almost every lane where people used to gather for social interactions. This

is disappearing fast in mega and metro cities where there is no space left for such places owing to commercial value of available land.

Parks in Indian cities have been encroached upon, or have turned into dumping zones, parking places or not maintained well to attract locals.

River and lake sides have become filthier. And, even the chauks at the end of every road teem with cars and motor bikes and become unsafe for social gatherings.

Widening of roads, introducing metro rail projects and adding more buses to transport department’s fleets will not solve the problem of navigability. Cities also need sidewalks, parklets and pocket parks and cycling lanes to look at these problems from a different perspective Significance of Public Spaces

Public spaces need to be safer, well-maintained and welcoming. For example, a poorly planned or maintained park can be a place of fear and danger, thus repelling people. A great square, on the other hand, can be a source of civic pride, and it can help citizens feel better connected to their city and community.

This degrading condition of local public spaces over the years has led us to a situation where people gather at a central location for recreational activities like India Gate or Connaught Place in Delhi or at Gateway of India or at beaches in Mumbai.

No doubt, such places are of national and historical importance but locals do not visit them for relishing the architectural marvel.

People living in dense urban areas find breathing room at such places.

Public spaces in Indian cities have received less attention than they deserve.

Most of the global cities have focused their attention to improve public spaces.

They not only built parks, parklets and wide sideways but ensured that they are people friendly. Amanda Burden, New York’s Chief City Planner, explains in a TED talk how public spaces make city work. She says, “Public spaces in cities are about where people go and where they meet — that’s

the core of how cities work.

And for the people, even more important than the buildings are the public spaces in between them.

These spaces are what make the cities come alive.”

The design of a city affects how its residents lead their lives. People living in the areas with abundant green space are more likely to be fit. Similarly, more walkable and cycling space on a city’s streets would encourage more people to walk and cycle. University of Melbourne (Australia) published a research in 2013 ‘The Influence of Urban Design on Neighbourhood Walking Following Residential Relocation: Longitudinal Results from the RESIDE Study’.

It says that the design of urban environments has the potential to enhance the health and well-being of residents by impacting social determinants of health including access to public transport, green space and local amenities.

Walkability is also linked with safety as pedestrians and cyclists account for 40 per cent, according to a study by IIT-Delhi, of total deaths on city roads.

Planning imperatives

Now, when India is planning new cities and refurbishing existing ones, it is required that state and local governments learn from global cities to make our urban environment

liveable, navigable and inclusive. Widening of roads, introducing metro rail projects and adding more buses to transport department’s fleets will not solve the problem of navigability. Cities also need sidewalks, parklets and pocket parks and cycling lanes to look at these problems from a different perspective. Most of the global cities we look up to have given significant importance to such spaces.

If we look at the metro cities, all of them are immigrant hubs—whether it’s Mumbai, New Delhi or Bengaluru or Kolkata.

People came to cities in want of better lifestyle and settled there. It is a well known fact that more people would come to cities with more economic activities coming to cities.

Global urban population has risen to 54 per cent of total population. If the present rate of population growth continues in cities, it is expected to reach 66 per cent by 2050. In India, around 410 million people live in urban areas and it is expected to increase to 814 million by 2050.

City governments face a major task of not only accommodating them in existing set up but also providing a healthy environment to live in. Achieving it in present scheme of things is a challenge for city governments. A comprehensive approach

to developing, enhancing, and managing public space requires both “top-down” and “bottom-up” strategies.

City leadership needs to take pro-active initiatives for transforming public spaces. A “bottom-up” grassroots organizing strategy by engaging local populace to understand their requirements is also integral to the strategy.

The first step in the direction would be making an honest citywide assessment of how existing public spaces are performing — or underperforming. Communities can be consulted to know if a particular area in the locality often sits empty, for instance, a lifeless building, a dilapidated park. The assessment should include every neighborhood and involve the people who live there as well as other key stakeholders.

With this inventory, city leadership can plan their vision for improving public spaces. Any public space agenda must also be tied to new development projects.

This is an opportunity for cities in India because many development projects are underway or to be initiated. They can also take advantage of growing real estate markets in cities by creating incentives for developers to preserve and enhance the public environments that are so greatly affected by their projects. A small tax on new development, such as one recently levied successfully in Chicago, could fund many of the improvements identified in the process of creating a public space agenda.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

13

Article | Smart Cities Mission

Chetan Vaidya Director, School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Delhi c.vaidya@spa.ac.in

The Government has launched a number of urban missions including the one on Smart Cities.

This mission will cover 100 cities over five years. In the first round, twenty cities have been selected. The Focus of Smart City mission is to develop a model of sustainable and inclusive cities through creation of “smart solutions� that can be replicated. Smart solutions as given in the mission focus both on development and management approach to cities. Improved management through use of technology is proposed in e-Governance and citizens services, waste management, water management, energy management and urban mobility. Approach to development focuses on

promoting high intensity development through mixed land use and transit oriented development, inclusive housing, walkable localities, developing open spaces, and giving an identity to the city.

Cities, in order to avail funds under the smart city mission were required to develop proposals at a city level (pan city proposals) and area level.

It is interesting to note that in the shortlisted twenty Smart City Plan proposals, the city level proposals have focused on city management through city level intelligent Centralized Command and Control Center, platform for citizen engagement and citizen services, CCTV surveillance; traffic management through transit operations system

(maintenance and tracking), smart parking system, common card (payment and operations), area based traffic control, public transit and traffic operations, non-motorized traffic; water management through Leak Identification System (SCADA), smart metering for water, etc.

Most of these proposals make extensive use of technology.

Area level proposals could focus on retrofitting, redevelopment or green field options. Most of the shortlisted cities have focused on retrofitting with a small percentage of area based projects on redevelopment and Greenfield development.

Area development proposals include improved open spaces, lake restoration, river front development,

Government of India has launched five programs-AMRUT, Smart Cities Mission, HRIDAY, Swachh Bharat Mission, and Housing for All with clear focus on integrated urban development. Cities should avail finances available from all the urban missions and other Government programs as they are interlinked with each other

Financing for Smart City Mission 14

April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

rain water harvesting, LED street lighting, renewable energy initiative, ITS traffic management, affordable housing, CCTV surveillance, smart waste management and cycle tracks.

Financing Requirement

Each city was required to also provide financial plans for pan city as well as area based proposals.

Bhubaneswar, which stood first in the Smart City Challenge, has projected a total investment of Rs 4537

crore. Out the total cost, Rs 442 crore is for Pan city projects and remaining amount for area-based development. Pune city estimates a total investment of Rs 2380 crore and out of this Rs 530 crore (22 percent) is for pan city projects for transport and water supply and the remaining amount is for area-based development.

New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has been proposed by Delhi to become a Smart City. Being an administrative capital it has aspired to become the global benchmark for the capital city. It proposes to meet this aspiration through setting global standards and benchmarks for urban mobility, inclusiveness, city planning and design and social development. The total investment proposed to make it a world class city has been proposed as Rs 1,897 crore. Out of this Rs 1228 crore will be for pan city projects and remaining Rs 669 crore will be by area-based development (Table 1).

Financing Sources

These selected cities plan to finance the proposed

capital investment for Smart City program through a combination of four to six different sources (Table 2).

In Bhubaneswar city, out of total investment, Smart City grant is 20 percent, another 12 per cent from convergence with state and national schemes, and almost 60 per cent of its funding is proposed through PPP. Pune city will meet its capital investment by raising 21 percent through Smart City grant and another 16 per cent from convergence from various other Government programs, 42 per cent through land monetization, and 21 per cent from ADB/ World Bank/JICA loans and bonds. It has also proposed a contribution from CSR funds. In the NDMC plan, out of total requirement, 27 per cent will be through convergence with Government schemes, 15 per cent from public private partnership (PPP), 26 per cent from Smart City mission, and 32 per cent through its internal revenues.

Bhubaneshwar envisages maximum funds to be generated through PPP, whereas Pune relies the most on land monetization

funds. NDMC has an almost equal reliance on Mission and Central and State government Schemes funds. It is also the only city amongst the three cities to have a maximum share (32 per cent) from its own revenues.

Innovative Financing

It can be seen that there are huge fund requirements which are largely being met through government funding except in case of Bhubaneswar which is depending mostly on PPP. Both Pune and Bhubaneswar have no funding from their own resources and NDMC too has about one third of its funding met through its own resources. To better manage finances and decrease reliance on grants and government funding requires exploring innovative financing and resource mobilization options. This could be through convergence of all Government programs, exploring the potential of land based resources and market-based mechanism like accessing capital markets and Public Private Partnerships.

table 1

Distribution of proposed investment in Pan City and Area-Based schemes in three selected smart city proposals.

Type

Bhubaneswar Pune Rs In Crore % Rs In Crore %

Pan City 442 Area-Based Development 4095

10 90

Total

100 2380

4537

530 1850

22 78

NDMC Rs In Crore

%

1228 669

65 35

100 1897

100

Source: www.smartcities.gov.in (accessed on April 9, 2016)

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

15

Article | Smart Cities Mission

Since these mechanisms have advantages and disadvantages, a combination of these can be useful in a particular context.

The Government has launched five urban missions to transform urban India. Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Smart Cities, Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), Housing for All (Urban) and Swachh Bharat Mission with clear focus on integrated urban development. Cities should avail finances available from all the urban missions and other Government programs as they are interlinked with each other.

Land-based sources could be marketable floor space index, betterment levy, impact fees, vacant land tax, etc. One component of such an approach is the integration of land use with public transport.

This may require higher, variable and marketable floor space index wherever feasible along with

requisite infrastructure provision. In revised Master Plan of Delhi 2021, as part of transit oriented development (TOD) policy higher floor space index of four is provided along the metro lines.

Infrastructure requirements generated by this provision can be met through both market based as well as land based revenue generation mechanisms like marketable floor space.

Market-based financing is an important innovation for urban infrastructure in the country. Accessing capital markets has emerged as a viable option to finance urban infrastructure. With government support ULBs can tap capital markets for provision of good quality infrastructure. Funds available under urban missions to the City can be leveraged through market based funding. Several urban local bodies and utility organizations in India have issued bonds amounting to Rs 1,230 crore through taxable bonds, tax-free bonds and pooled financing. There have been

successful examples of Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Tamilnadu and Karnataka which can provide the learning and models for replication. There are several PPP projects in solid waste management. Various ULBs are now taking help from the private sector to develop water supply projects in PPP mode. The initial focus of PPP in water supply projects was on provision of bulk supply.

The focus is slowly shifting now to improved management of existing systems. There are many concerns in PPP projects that would need to be addressed before they can be taken as viable funding mechanism. For example in urban water supply and sanitation sector most of these PPP projects are not citywide, water supply tariffs in India are low, base data of existing water supply systems are missing and capacity of private operators is also inadequate.

However, there are successful examples of PPP in transportation of solid waste and bus systems.

Table 2

Sources of Investment for three selected Smart Cities in India Type

Bhubaneswar Pune Rs In Crore % Rs In Crore %

Smart City 950 Central/State Convergence 525 PPP 2725 Land Monetization - ADB/World Bank 210 Own Revenue - Others 127

20 12 60 - 5 - 1

Total

100 2380

4537

500 380 - 1000 500 - -

Source: www.smartcities.gov.in (accessed on April 9, 2016)

16

April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

21 16 - 42 21 - -

NDMC Rs In Crore 500 511 281 - - 605 -

100 1897

% 26 27 15 32 100

Improving Revenue Base

Effectively making use of these funding mechanisms requires a process of reforms in the functioning of the ULBs. The first step to start the process of revenue mobilization in many urban organizations is to improve the information base. This can include improved land records system like proper surveys, identification and verification of properties, and computerization of records which will strengthen billing and thereby revenue collection.

Provision of simple guidelines to citizens on tax assessment ensuring that tax assessments carried out in a transparent manner can further improve revenue collection. Area based property tax with self-assessment system and online collection introduced in Delhi and other cities have been major steps in this direction. Improved efficiency in revenue collection and other reforms in functioning of ULBs can help improve financial health of the ULBs. This can further help them tap other market based financing mechanisms.

Smart city proposals require large funds.

Currently ULBs are mostly relying on government funds which is unsustainable in the long run. For increasing municipal revenues there are options available. These would work only if ULBs bring about change in their functioning which can help them increase revenue collection as well as access capital markets.

Inclusive Cities | Article

Growth of urbanization in India, as elsewhere, brings the issue of inclusiveness and accessibility of public Infrastructure and Services into greater focus

Dr Sudhir Krishna Former Secretary (Urban Development), Government of India sudhir.krishna@gmail.com

The issue of accessibility extends more prominently to the senior citizen, the physically disabled, the women and children and the economically and socially disadvantaged sections of the society.

The National Policy for Persons with Disabilities, 2006(NPPwD) recognizes that Persons with Disabilities (PwD) are valuable human resource for the country and seeks to create an environment that provides them equal opportunities, protection of their rights and full participation in society.

This has been followed up with the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan), launched in August 2015, to make India disabled – friendly.

The Department of

Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) is the nodal Department in the Union Government for propagating and monitoring the implementation of the National Policy and Programmes for the PwD. At the State and Municipality levels, the Departments of Social Welfare discharge these responsibilities.

It is noticeable that, with the exception of Delhi, the states in Top 5 are also among the most urbanized ones and the states in Bottom 5 are also among the least urbanized ones.

It appears reasonable to conclude that urbanization leads to higher longevity and, consequently, to higher ratio of the elderly in the total population of a state. Therefore, it can be

surmised and recommended that with the steady growth of urbanization, care for the elderly would need enhanced attention from all concerned.

Physically disabled

As per Census 2011, the total population of the Persons with Disabilities is 2.68 crore, which is almost 2.5 percent of the total population. This number includes the mentally and physically disabled persons. India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which, under Article 9, makes it obligatory for the Governments at various levels, including the Municipalities and the Development Authorities, for ensuring to PwDs accessibility to (a) Information, (b) Transportation, (c) Physical Environment, (d) Communication Technology and (e) Accessibility to Services as well as

Making Urban Infrastructure & Services Accessible to All www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

17

table 1

Percentage of Elderly (60+ years) in major States as per Census 2011: The Top 5 and the Bottom 5 All India Ratio: 8.6% Name of the State

% age of Elderly

Name of the State

Top 5 Kerala Tamil Nadu Punjab Maharashtra Andhra Pradesh

12.6 10.4 10.3 9.9 9.8

emergency services.

The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 under sections 44, 45 and 46 categorically provides for non-discrimination in public transport, non-discrimination on the city roads and nondiscrimination in built environment, respectively.

As per Section 46 of the PwD Act, the States

Chart-1

18

April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

% age of Elderly

Bottom 5

Assam 6.7 Delhi 6.8 Bihar 7.1 Jharkhand 7.4 J&K 7.4

Disabled Population by Residence India: 2001-2011

overall growth in the ratio of the disabled was 0.08 percentage points, for the urban areas, the growth was much higher, at 0.24 percentage points.

The reason could be analysed, but what seems undisputable is the fact that the disabled need higher attention, particularly in the urban areas. The infrastructure and services in the cities need to focus on the disabled and the elderly in a way that would enable them to have convenient access to the same.

Accessible Infrastructure

and local authorities are required to provide for: • Ramps in public buildings • Provision of toilets for wheelchair users • Braille symbols and auditory signals in

elevators or lifts • Ramps in hospitals, primary health centres and other rehabilitation centres.

It is interesting to note that, during the decade 2001 to 2011, while the

Barrier-free built environment enables people with disabilities, including the elderly, to move about safely and freely, and use the facilities within the built spaces. The NPPwD identifies the goal of barrier free design as to provide an environment that supports the independent functioning of individuals so that they can participate without assistance,

Inclusive Cities | Article

While governments at all levels are working for making the governance systems citizencentric, special care and attention would be required to make the same PwDfriendly. Mobile-App based services can be of great help to the PwD. Public organisations need to provide information and services through telephone and internet based helplines. More and more information would need to be placed on the web-portals of the organisations, so that the PwD need not even call the help lines

in everyday activities.

Therefore, to the maximum extent possible, public buildings and public places, such as offices, museums, parks, and toilets in public places and transportation systems for public use ought to be made barrier free.

Special attention would need to be given for the PwD in the categories of women and children.

Transportation systems, buses being the most popular mode, need to have low floor steps to allow for convenient climbing, while the platforms at the bus stands need to have ramps at entry and boarding points designed to be aligned with the door and steps of the bus. Persons above 60 should have priority rights over the seating places.

Drivers and Conductors need to be imparted training for assisting the PwD. Similar arrangements would be desirable in respect of Metro railways too. The streets in cities need to have PwD-friendly walkways, which should allow for safe walking.

Accessible Services

While governments at all levels are working for making the governance systems citizen-centric, special care and attention would be required to make the same PwD-friendly.

Mobile-App based services can be of great help to the PwD. Public organisations need to provide information and services through telephone and internet based helplines. More and more information would need to be placed on the web-portals of the organisations, so that the PwD need not even call the help lines.

However, some public services would continue to be based on access through telephonic calls and internet/mobile based apps. For instance, securing a radio cab or an ambulance or the services of a doctor or the police. In such cases, the language and design of the app would need to be simple and available in local languages. Software that are friendly to the visually

impaired are becoming increasingly available in the open market and need to be promoted through government subsidies too.

In conclusion

The proportion of disabled and the elderly in the population has shown a growing trend over last several decades and the trend seems likely to continue in the decades to come. This segment of population has the potential to make tremendous improvement in the contribution that it could make to the economy of the cities and regions.

The public infrastructure and services need to be designed and operated in such a manner that would facilitate the persons with disabilities overcome their physical handicap and join the mainstream of social and economic life and activities in the society. That would surely make them a net contributor to, and not a burden on, the social and economic framework of the cities and the regions.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

19

Article | Safe Cities

Safety in Cities

The issue of safety has become an integral part of discourse on cities and urban life. For a holistic understanding, the concept of safety has to be understood in the broader framework of the urban space

Dr. O P Mishra, IPS Senior Deputy Commissioner of Police, Delhi Police opmdel@gmail.com

20 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

The urban population has increased in South Asia in the decade 2000 to 2011 by 130 million. According to an estimate it is further projected to increase by 250 million in next 15 years.

From a Sociological point of view city generates a totally distinct and separate way of living with typical socio cultural patterns of interaction. The issue of individual safety within a broader framework of safe habitat has occupied critical

importance with increasing pace of urbanization.

For any discussion on safety in cities individual and the community will always remain the focal point. Generally, there is a tendency to look at the issue of safety in cities as an independent variable supposed to be taken care of by some specialized agency.

This outlook undermines the other important stake holders who play very critical role in ensuring a safe habitat. I personally

feel that the individual and the communities being targeted, are major stake holders. I would like to propose following framework to understand the dynamics of safety.

Sensitivity

Safety requires sensitivity on the part of the individual and the community. Both these stake holders have to be sensitive to such issues which have bearing on their day to day safety while they are at home or on the street.

We must understand that city life is heterogeneous.

We cannot be insensitive and indifferent to issues which have a bearing on day to day safety.

Anonymity

The overall safety matrix of the city is affected by various causative factors.

For example, safety and security of citizens on the street is also linked to the lighting conditions.

This will require the participation of the civic agencies.

Likewise, there will be many areas where infrastructural aspects affecting public safety will require involvement of other agencies

According to German American Sociologist Louis Wirth, urban life represents a population with greater social differentiation expressed geographically in different neighbourhoods based on class and ethnicity.

Anonymity, impersonal and informal relations are thus the core elements of city life. These sociological factors very much affect the issue of safety in the city. In urban dwellings people hardly know each other including their next door neighbours.

Those characters who play with the security of the individual and the community at a larger level take advantage of the feeling of anonymity and breach individual as well as community security.

Thus safety requires that citizens break this cycle of anonymity and come closer to each other in day to day interaction.

Feeling of belongingness, togetherness and community orientation: Once the circle of anonymity is broken it is bound to generate healthy ethos and spirit of community living. This feeling will provide an opportunity to the residents in a particular habitat to isolate and identify actors who breach community security in various forms.

Empowering the stakeholders: Safety is a multi-dimensional concept.

Securing the city can never be the responsibility of any one stakeholder. The safety and security in city requires participation and coordination of other agencies apart from the involvement of individual and the community. The overall safety matrix of the city is affected by various causative factors.

For example, safety and security of citizens on the street is also linked to the lighting conditions.

Personal security has been breached in dark spots in the city. This will require the participation of the civic agencies. Likewise, there will be many areas where infrastructural aspects affecting public safety will require involvement of other agencies. Thus it requires empowering all the stakeholders to identify various factors affecting the overall safety dimension and take corrective measures accordingly.

Training

In all cases where breach of security has taken place it is the individual or the community which is at the receiving end. No discussion on safety can be meaningful unless citizens are educated regarding safety tips to deal with incidents of breach of safety and security. Critical analysis of cases of breach of security at micro and macro level reveal shortcoming on the part of various stake holders. Collateral damages and breach of safety can be reduced with proper training of the stakeholders.

Community preparedness to deal with major incidents in a city is a very critical

aspect of safety in the cities. For example, taking some basic precautions at home to avoid theft and burglaries can minimize collateral damage to properties. At a broader level the collateral damage to community safety and security can be minimized by educating the citizens.

This has emerged today as the hallmark of community policing initiatives of law enforcement agencies across the globe.

Yearn for improvement

Society is dynamic and it adds to the complexity of urban life at a very high speed. The overall dimension of safety in a city is facing multipronged challenges from elements who try to breach personal as well as community security. Technology which has made life simpler and easier in urban areas has also started challenging core values of individual and public safety. In order to cope with challenges of safety there is a need for all the stakeholders to continuously improve and hone their counter strategy, methodology and logistics against actors who breach the personal and community safety and security. Therefore, it can be concluded that the concept of safety is a multi-stakeholder exercise.

The safety in the city depends on the healthy and meaningful cooperation and coordination of all the stakeholders who are directly or indirectly entrusted with the responsibility of securing a living habitat.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

21

Article | Energy Efficiency and Cities

Upgrade cities

for a greener tomorrow Making cities energy efficient should be the top priority of governments in all developing countries as it will not only save energy and cut Greenhouse Gas emissions but also improve financial health of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) by cutting down expenditure on their energy bills that burn big holes in the pockets of cash-strapped municipal bodies

Ravi Ranjan Guru Senior Executive Director, AIILSG and Program Manager, South & South West Asia UCLG ASPAC raavi.guru@gmail.com

22 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

More than 50 percent of global population lives in cities which cover only 2 percent of Earth’s surface.

They consume over twothirds of the world’s energy and generate 70 per cent of carbon emissions, 50 per cent of global waste and 70 per cent of global GDP. Cities are multilayered and have many identities. They are part of the problem and also the change agents.

Roland Busch, head of Cities and Infrastructure at Siemens, is right when he says,“If we want to win the war against climate change, it has to be won in cities”.

Many international organisations like the United Nations, World Bank, the European Union, etc. are making

efforts to find out feasible ways so that the energy consumption in cities can be reduced to improve the health of urban environment. Whatever the measures are, local governments have an essential role to play in influencing the energy choices of the ever-growing urban population in their respective territories.

Promoting the use of green technology and encouraging the use of renewable energy resources could be the first step. But, for this, municipal bodies have to lead from the front by first ensuring their buildings, their services are energy efficient. This would require increased deployment of renewable energy systems

and to promote these with multiple methods such as monetarily incentivizing citizens by giving subsidy or rebate in municipal bills.

Urban Local Bodies will also need to ensure that the energy infrastructure in cities is continually upgraded for desired results.

City governments, particularly in India, have fewer administrative and policy making authority to support and encourage use of renewable energy resources. The state and national governments should find ways through which they can embed certain authority in ULBs to take initiatives which can help in making their cities energy efficient and self-reliant.

Cities have to make hard decisions on investments, so it is important to go back to the basics and understand where the opportunities are, what measures offer the greatest potential for energy efficiency improvements, which sectors to prioritize, and what the implementation constraints are.

The Guidance Notes for mayors and city managers, developed by the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), focus on six key topics: procurement, financing, buildings, transport, assessments, and urban planning. According to the notes, integrating energy efficiency can also contribute to improving municipal services and increasing competitiveness, making cities more inclusive and sustainable.

For example, improving public transport not only lowers energy consumption, but also reduces congestion and pollution, and increases people’s mobility – which is especially critical for people in the bottom 40 percent of income levels who need access to jobs, schools and public services.

The notes give mayors and urban policymakers a range of practical options and strategies to make municipal services and city administrations much more efficient.

For example, the note on procurement encourages municipalities to prioritize purchasing of energy efficiency products such as lighting and office equipment, and to explore energy savings performance contracts for renovations of energy-intensive public facilities.

Anita Marangoly George, Senior Director, Energy and Extractives Global Practice at the World Bank, says that cities have to make hard decisions on investments, so it is important to go back to the basics and understand where the opportunities are, what measures offer

the greatest potential for energy efficiency improvements, which sectors to prioritize, and what the implementation constraints are.

Green Buildings

Buildings are major energy guzzlers. The concept of building energy efficient buildings is catching up fast around the world but still most of the buildings in our cities are not upgraded to be energy efficient. Technological advancements have enabled us to build green buildings which not only optimise energy usage but also use less water, generate less waste and provide healthier space to its residents in comparison to conventional buildings.

While the construction cost of such buildings is higher than the normal ones the cost can be recovered through savings made over the years. The Government of India has built Indira Paryavaran Bhawan which is a model building that saves energy in every way possible.

Such models can be replicated across the country and municipal bodies need to find out sources through which they can generate financial resources to fund those projects.

Such buildings in every city will inspire locals to take initiatives to make their buildings and homes energy efficient. All India Institute of Local SelfGovernment is working with Karnataka and Chhattisgarh to promote the concept of energy-efficient buildings.

Energy efficient municipal services There are many global cities which are leading the way by adopting green measures in providing basic civic amenities to their residents.

An online news report says that Reykjavik tops the list of energy efficient cities worldwide. The city relies on renewable hydropower and geothermal plants to provide all of the heat, electricity and hot water for its more than 120,000 citizens. The city plans on becoming fossil-fuel-free by 2050. In the mid-2000s, the city began replacing its public transportation with hydrogen-fuelled buses. The only “pollution” emitted from these vehicles is pure water. Vancouver in Canada is among the few cities which have already begun the process of making them energy efficient, sustainable. The city aims to become green by 2020.

According to a NASDAQ report, hydroelectric power already accounts for 90 percent of the city’s energy supply, while the other 10 percent includes renewables like wind, solar and wave power. Add in Vancouver’s mass transit--nearly 250 miles of bike lanes and ride sharing programs--and the city has one of the lowest per capita carbon emissions of any major city in North America. Other world cities too have taken innovative initiatives to become more energy efficient. Many cities in America and Europe are extensively promoting usage of cycles, car-sharing services, and non-motorised transport to reduce dependency on fossil fuel.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

23

Article | Smart Cities

Smart City The next leap for urban India

Making existing cities smarter and pro-poor offers greater dividends than building new cities. Financial viability, strong local governance and evolved transportation is the need of the hour

Kailasnath Adhikari Managing Director, Governance Now kailash@sabgroup.in

24 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Mid-October last year, Barcelona was brimming with tourists wishing to admire the architecture of Gaudi, the artwork of Picasso and the revelry of La Rambla. In spite of the heavy footfalls and occasional picketing by Catalonian separatists, there was hardly any difference in the traffic flow. Most tourists chose to cover the city on foot thanks to the wide pavements and smart traffic signals combined with the discipline of drivers. Still others chose to cycle their way through the city. A few took public buses which ply at regular intervals and till late night.

Cycling seemed to be the preferred mode for both tourists and locals. Smartly designed pavements give equal space to cyclists and pedestrians and strategically

placed slopes make the cyclists’ transition from road to pavement smooth.

Cut to India, August 2014: urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu announced that Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) will be discontinued. He also indicated that the mission would be replaced by a new programme that will focus on creating 100 smart cities.

However, contrary to popular notion, smartness is not just about the use of technology. Explains Aggarwal: “It includes everything, from the design of the town, road network, sewerage and water supply to solid waste management.

All these building blocks have to be put in place in a very smart manner so that ultimately they become cost

effective and user friendly.”

Except two or three smart cities that will be created from scratch, the ambitious project will see existing cities getting upgraded, he said. According to a senior MoUD official, the government is taking care to avoid the drawbacks of JnNURM.

Smart city and transportation “A smart city should be compact with fairly good ‘people density’ and have a well-connected and smart transport infrastructure with optimal use of energy and water,” says Madhav Pai, India director, WRI Ross Centre for Sustainable Cities. “It should be resilient against high temperatures and floods.

Besides, coordination between agencies is the

hallmark of a smart city.”

However, Om Prakash Mathur, senior fellow, Institute of Social Sciences, says there is still no consensus as to what India actually means by a smart city. “It can be described but not defined. For every kind of system it is integration and consolidation,” he says.

Mathur’s concerns are understandable. “I don’t know if we have the same visions as the Koreans or Spaniards for a smart city.

Or are we going to have some toned down version of a smart city,” says Mathur.

Ease of commute can transform the economic and social landscape of a city. Integration of transport systems – connecting metro to light rails, bus lanes and bicycle tracks – will be a difficult task to accomplish but is an important characteristic of a smart city. The benefits?

An integrated city transport infrastructure will help reduce travel time and cost. Information and communications technology (ICT), which is the backbone of a smart city, can be used to discipline unruly traffic. Use of a common transport smart card for travel on any public transport can ensure a hassle-free commute.

Besides the basic transportation infrastructure being made more accessible and safe, a smart city aims to provide more options to the commuter. A commuter gets facilities in terms of information for route planning, changeovers and last-mile connectivity. This can be made available on mobile phone, internet or at

changeover points through display boards.

Most congestion in urban India is due to unorganised parking spaces and vehicles parked illegally on the roadside. Online availability of information on public parking spaces will help drivers plan beforehand. At present, 90 percent of the roads in urban India are used for vehicles, and only 10 percent by pedestrians.

By encouraging pedestrian mobility through smart designing of towns and cities, a lot of congestion on the roads can be taken care of.

Smart city and urbanisation

India’s first planned city Chandigarh was completed in the mid-1950s and by 2011 it became a city of one million people. It took 60 years for a city right in the middle of Punjab and Haryana to become a million-plus city. India needs new cities to address the challenges of rapid urbanisation but given the Chandigarh example it is doubtful how successful the experiment will be.

Mathur strongly feels that new smart cities will not address the challenges of urbanisation as he feels rural migrants will not inhabit these cities. “The rural people might have insignificant presence in the smart cities at least in the initial days. Highly qualified people will run the city.

Transport will be terribly expensive to operate and such cities will be expensive to maintain. On a per capita basis, I think it will be quite expensive to run these cities,” he said.

He adds if the goal is poverty reduction, that will not happen unless the cities themselves have linkages to villages. “If the purpose is the agglomeration of services and economy, maybe it (new smart cities) would contribute better.

Improving governance structures of existing cities would be far more effective in addressing urban issues.” In this context, there is a debate whether the government should go ahead with building greenfield cities or concentrate on making the existing cities smarter.

Dr. Sudhir Krishna, chairman, BIS Committee on Smart City Standards and former secretary, ministry of urban development, says India should focus on making existing cities smarter rather than making new cities. He says if we ignore our cities which are facing huge urban deficits and instead develop new smart cities, the rich will migrate to the new cities while the poor will remain in the old cities. “Instead we should focus on renewal of old cities, identify the satellite town in the vicinity and strive for integrated development of the satellite town and the main city,” he adds. “If you develop a high-cost city then it cannot survive by itself because poor people will have no place in that city. We have to develop both main and satellite cities as smart cities. The difference will be that the satellite city will have modern buildings for commercial activity, industrial development and universities, whereas

the main city will have improved basic requirements,” he says.

DMICDC smart cities

Long before the new government announced the 100 smart cities programme, the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) was already developing 24 smart cities. Now, DMICDC is focusing on the first phase of developing seven cities – expected to be ready by 2019. Amitabh Kant, former CEO and MD, DMICDC (now CEO Niti Aayog), says the best way to make cities equitable is through information flow.

“In a country like ours, the strength of ICT lies not only in using technology for purposes of day-to-day management but also to be able to provide access to education, healthcare and being able to provide realtime information in terms of social infrastructure which is what citizens need,” he says.

Kant adds, “ICT helps you bring in real-time governance and control into that city. ICT provides all the data flows that need to be analysed because several instruments then speak to each other. A smart city is all about flow, capture and analysis of that information and taking informed decisions based on that analysis.” He is also of the view that cities need an engine to continue growing and evolving over a period of time. “Cities are organic entities and need an economic driver. My belief is 30-35 percent of

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

25

Article | Smart Cities

every city should be driven by manufacturing. That will bring in young workers and their families. Cities must also have educational institutions which will bring in young students,” he says.

In the DMIC cities the initial challenges were to get land and create high-quality trunk infrastructure — drainage, sewerage and solid waste management systems. The entire infrastructure has been created in 8-12 layers beneath the ground.

The political angle

Despite the use of technology for better management of cities, if the governance structures are not improved, smart cities will decay like their predecessors. BJP vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe refers to the mayor-in-council experiment in Mumbai during the BJP-Shiv Sena rule. There was an effort to divest power to the elected body rather than the present system of the municipal commissioner being all powerful. A cabinet was ruling the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for a while. “They abandoned the idea saying corruption had phenomenally grown.

Doing away with that has not made corruption go away. But, somebody has to take the onus,” he says.

Sahasrabuddhe points out different authorities are governing different parts of urban life. “Besides complete integration of authorities, building consensus around ideas is the biggest challenge in

26 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

building smart cities,” he adds. Since the ministry of urban development is concentrating on upgrading cities, no policy change in governance structure has been chalked out so far.

Sources, however, indicate that governance structure of DMIC cities will be based on the shareholder agreement with states. A special purpose vehicle will be constituted as a partnership between the centre and the state to drive the city.

It is expected that urban local bodies and municipal authorities will continue to govern and hence build their capacities for dealing with the new system. An integrated governance structure will be mandatory as too many parallel bodies operating at the same time will be at cross purposes with each other.

Land acquisition

Kant admits land acquisition has been a big challenge for him.

Even after acquiring land, mobilising all companies and contracting takes a lot of time. While acquiring land, density of states has to be considered. Eastern states are densely populated and finding land there would be a difficult task.

His views are echoed

by Krishna, who believes that the country needs to simplify the land acquisition process. “The legal process has to be reviewed. The process of social and environmental impact assessment should be followed before acquiring a certain tract of land. The present system of open

City essentials • Economic viability is the foremost component of a smart city. A smart city is a hub of economic activity—due to a thriving sector, be it manufacturing, services, tourism and hospitality, or information technology.

• Financial independence of the local government is the second most important component of a smart city. The city corporation should generate enough revenue so that it could invest in the city’s infrastructure and on public services without needing help from the state government.

• A unified authority for roads and all kinds of transport is another major aspect of a smart city. A single decisionmaking body ensures a coherent, reliable and affordable public transport system.

• An empowered and skilled pollution control authority with a good network of laboratories to ensure garbage and sewerage is treated and recycled in a smart manner without contaminating the air, land and water bodies.

• Easy access to financial and other resources for start-ups and small and medium enterprises to promote local talent and generate employment is another key aspect.

• A command and control centre which is networked with all agencies of the government and is able to monitor the city 24x7 is at the core of a smart city.

• An empowered political leadership at the top which can take decisions about city development is essential for a smart city. Also, devolution of power to the political head of the local government is the most critical aspect for smooth functioning of a smart city.

public hearing is time consuming,” he says. And instead of land acquisition, he suggests town planning should be used for land acquisition. Though many are concerned about the huge financial burden that smart cities will impose on our economy, Krishna is of the opinion that finance is not an issue. Similarly, Kant argues the savings made by smart cities are far more than the cost. “The ICT component over a period of time works out to 3.5-4 percent of the total cost but provides great savings in terms of management,” he adds. Experts also point out that retrofitting existing cities is going to be a huge task and building brand-new cities after acquiring land

may take its own time. So instead of hankering after 100 cities at once, it would be wise if the government focuses its attention on building one smart city and then replicating it.

“The biggest challenge of urban development is vision, leadership and management. There is no legal or financial impediment,” says Krishna.

Sums up Kant: “Barcelona is a very good example of an existing city which has been made smarter. But making a city smarter takes a lot of political and administrative will at the local level.

Political leaders in existing cities will have to become the champions of smart cities and they must become the key drivers of growth.”

Waste Management | Article

Waste Management demands immediate attention It is most urgent that we manage our waste properly; not for the sake of “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” or “Smart City Abhiyan” but for the sake of the dignity of our country and for pollution free water and air for our citizens

Manisha Date Sr. Program Officer, NSWAI- ENVIS datemanisha@gmail.com

Composting of pre cooking waste from hotels, restaurants and food vendors

It is most urgent that we manage our waste properly; not for the sake of “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” or “Smart City Abhiyan” but also for the sake of the dignity of our country and for pollution free water and air for our citizens.

Till the late 90s, common urban citizens did not know about waste management problems. Landfill was the unique way of managing waste. The landfill sites were a bit away from urban areas but unfortunately near poor localities on the outskirts.

Nobody was finding new methods of managing waste; barring old newspaper vendors and some rag pickers collecting inorganic waste like plastic, metal and glass items.

Collection of waste was never a big business for many; though there were recyclers in the business.

When our economy opened up; industrialisation boom required more and more land for setting up businesses. Landfill sites came in rage in this period.

Over the period landfill sites also started showing bad effects of their existence.

Ground water quality started deteriorating due to leachate formation. Air around the landfill site started showing presence of spores. Fires in the landfill sites became common. That affected the health of the people in the surrounding areas and their property values could not go up.

All this is happening in

the country, where there is no dearth of management experts in every segment of waste. Something good happens in our country only when politicians decide to do it. Hence let us pray that our politicians quickly decide to take appropriate actions to manage waste scientifically. Secondly, the percentage of failed and stopped waste management projects is almost 95%. That adds to the misery. Imagine if hundreds of projects initiated would have been successfully working, the scenario would not have been so bad. With every failed waste management project a lot of money, machinery and resources like water and electricity are wasted. More serious effect is that citizens’ confidence dampens and there is great degree of disappointment.

With this back ground any proposal of new waste management project is not whole heartedly supported by citizens. This chain of events has to be broken with successful projects.

We have executed one such project of composting one ton food waste every day. This project does not use any shed, machine or electricity. Sun light available in our tropical country has been best utilized in this project.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

27

Article | Urban Aesthetics

Abhilash Khandekar National Political Editor, Dainik Bhaskar kabhilash59@gmail.com

World over most modern cities are seen as artifacts. Take Paris or Prague; Shanghai or Sydney; Melbourne or Milan you would be amazed to see the range of art works there. A person of limited exposure to the world of fine arts would also notice the vibrant character of the city, thanks to use of art in public places, besides the very elementary designs of building architecture.

From huge metallic or

stone sculptures on streets or parks to large murals, eye-catching paintings in fabulous colours by little-known painters as street art, to the works of renowned painters, we get to see everything there in abundance. The eyesoothing artifacts do have their positive psychological impact on individuals.

European cities traditionally used artists to beautify their cities in more ways than one. American

The missing artist in Indian city!

A member of the French Chamber of Deputies once observed “A work of art does not always involve a canvas or a block of marble. A great city can be a work of art, a collective and complex art, but a superior art”. Are Indian cities aesthetically appealing? A look within...

28 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

ones too did not lag behind and later, some Asian cities followed suit. But not India.

I remember having seen many years ago, an old short Portuguese documentary “The Artist and the City”.

It was an impression of the artist Antorio Cruz who portrayed the city using water colours. Cruz’s paintings spoke about the city as he looked from an artist’s perspective. So there was a city and there was an artist. Of course, the film did not much speak about artists’ involvement in making the city beautiful. A look at Goa, ruled for many years by the Portuguese, provides some glimpse of artistic life styles of the locals even today, compared to the urban facade of say, Kanpur or Patna.

Many urban planners in the West, since time immemorial, used the services of prominent artists of their time to help city look up, provide them work place and help break the monotony of buildings, small and big. And this was other than building museums and art galleries in cities across the world. A museum, they say, is but a reflection of the city’s love for art and culture.

Alas, in India, this is not the case. In the Indian style of urban planning, erecting sky scrapers and creation of public places, the desired involvement of well-trained, exposed and experienced artists has been woefully missing. Have our foreignreturned bureaucrats or urban planners ever thought about it?

In any city, western or Indian, the human fabric constantly changes

and that’s quite a natural process with growing and shifting of populations for various social, political and demographic reasons.

It is largely the stable architectural environment which gives the city its physical identity. Most architects used local and traditional designs to develop and design cities.

Various influences may have shaped their minds but cities developed around 100 years ago or 150 years ago, hold testimony to the fact that art and architecture went hand in hand, mainly in European cities.

Paris, one of the most beautiful cities of the world for more reasons than one, is Paris because it looks like Paris and although it is frequently observed that a vital city cannot be a museum, the architectural innovation in the French capital has often been met with opposition because Paris has been regarded by some critics not merely as a city containing artifacts, but as a single artifact which must be preserved intact!

Those of us who have been

In the Indian style of urban planning, erecting sky scrapers and creation of public places, the desired involvement of welltrained, exposed and experienced artists has been woefully missing.

Have our foreignreturned bureaucrats or urban planners ever thought about it?

to Paris or seen and read about it, may never doubt this statement.

Why does Paris look like it looks for years together? There is a reason.

In Paris, the uniformity and harmony within the city has been, in part, the result of strict regulations governing building height, roof profiles, and facade projections and about public places. For decades together these regulations,including say, the allowable dimensions of balconies, remained the same and continued to guide the architects.

But some people like architect Louis Boileau pointed out that “artists and men of taste complained of the lack of variety in buildings built in our (French) new streets and of their decorative insignificance”. He went on to praise the superior picturesqueness of cities such as Brussels or London. There were others who opposed the strong regulations about buildings and parks and other art objects, mainly of course buildings....and the debate went on for several decades.

Yet, Paris remains the world’s most beautiful city ever. Urban aesthetics was quite debated in Paris and one commission (19231930) constituted to review urban regulations observed “In its physiognomy, the city of Paris must conserve its own character, its age-old discipline, its quality of order and measure. And so, without exception, building of excessive height, like those which provide the attraction of certain foreign cities, should be forbidden.”

Indian scenario

What is the Indian scenario about art and architecture in cities? Pretty pathetic, I would say. First, there are no firm regulations in place in most cities.

Second, urban development being a state subject, laws and regulations governing master plans and beautifying cities are more likely to be misused, bent and flouted. You can do a random check in any state in India and you would find a nexus of bureaucrats, contractors and local politicians busy ruining the cities rather than coming together to make them gorgeous places to live happily. Admittedly, India, for most part of its independence, remained busy in ‘roti, kapda aur makaan’. There was clearly no thrust on cities, let alone making them beautiful, and looking at them as an artifact, the way westerners looked at and made their cities look like one.

During the British rule, there still was a general sense of aesthetics reflected in park deigns, sculptures or buildings that represented a typical style of the time in India. In the later years-1950 onwards- things went from bad to worse with each passing decade.

Now with a fresh focus on cities, will there be an artist deciding about making cities beautiful, full of art and aesthetics?

Unfortunately, barring a few rare exceptions, architects are not showing great innovative skills of global scale in India. I am sorry to state, their understanding of art is abysmal. In Delhi, where the Urban Arts

Commission came into being through a piece of Parliamentary legislation in 1974, it did help the national capital, credited for its beauty largely to a British man-Architect Edwin Lutyens. But elsewhere the cities present a very dull, drab and deplorable picture.

Well, I have not heard of architects who made a pitched battle for bagging multi-crore contracts of preparing detailed project reports (DPRs) for creating ‘Smart Cities’, talking of building museums, art galleries or using eminent artists of national repute to do up our new cities. Most architects, unfortunately, are busy today in land use changes, projecting a complete new city (more through computer jugglery than through genuine public participation) which may not be identifiable with local ethos, traditions, history and culture.

During the times of Maharajas ruling cities like Indore or Mysore or Jaipur or Hyderabad, artists were patronised in a big way.

They created best of art and designs. Top class buildings were made, sculptures and paintings were promoted by the Maharajas and cities were designed well under their supervision. Indian urban history is replete with examples of world famous artists working for Indian cities. Without sounding very negative and hopeless, I think the time has come again to make cities beautiful using artists.

The smart cities mission has provided Government of India with an opportunity to make cities really beautiful, green and truly habitable.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

29

Article | Waste Management

In what might seem a surprising piece of statistic, the South Asian Region generated the lowest amount of Municipal Solid Waste per capita among all regions of the world. Even on a gross basis, the region accounted for just 5% of the MSW generated globally.

The OECD countries produced about 44%. A World Bank’s 2012 report on MSW Management across the world presents some interesting figures while conceding that the exercise has not always been easy due to the absence of reliable data, wide variations in the figures

V Vijaykumar Sr Advisor, AIILSG v.vijaykumar@aiilsg.org

across regions countries and cities, and other factors.

South Asia’s average per capita MSW generation is 0.45 Kg per day, compared with the average for OECD countries at 2.2 Kgs per day. While the averages provide some benchmarks, the variations could be significant. In the case of South Asia the figure varies from 0.12 Kg to 5.1 Kg per day. The reasons for the wide variation could be many. While the figure is averaged out for the entire region, there are bound to be substantial variations across countries in the region.

Further, the report has found that an urban resident generates nearly twice as much MSW as a rural one. Economic status of the population can also influence waste generation quite markedly. Generally higher levels of economic prosperity lead to higher waste generation because of lifestyle choices determined by the ability to spend, such as we observe in the case of OECD countries, the most advanced of the lot. While with the numbers, it may be observed that at the higher end, the per capita waste generation in South Asia at 5.1 Kgs per day is much

We need Haste no more time to Waste Municipal Waste Management is one function which is entirely handled by the ULBs. Waste management in the developing countries need serious attention to ensure sustainable measures are adopted to maintain urban ecology

30 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

higher than the highest OECD generator who accounts for 3.7 Kgs. While one can find more numbers and statistics on the subject, it is evident that MSW management is among the biggest challenges confronting cities today. While the low numbers in South Asia may sound comforting, the averages do not really tell the whole story. Cities are groaning under the increasing burden of waste. Rapid urbanisation accompanied by higher economic growth which the region is experiencing will accelerate waste generation and thus exacerbate the problem. Unless of course steps are taken soon to tackle the malaise.

Municipal Waste Management is one function which is entirely handled by the ULBs. Further this function is critical since any dip in its efficacy is highly visible instantly and markedly.

Piled up garbage on street

The Debate on Waste Management is now widespread among policy makers, local bodies and citizens.

The debate is, however, hampered by its almost exclusive focus on ‘Management’.

It is necessary that the supply side, i.e., the generation of waste receives greater attention

sides and the resulting foul odour are immediately seen and experienced, and often make headlines as in the recent case of New Delhi. Apart from the potential for public noise, inadequate management has serious public health and environmental impacts.

MSW management comprises the critical aspects of collection and disposal. Collection is generally from the producers doorstep, kerbside or community bins. These services are sometimes contracted out and delegated. Efficiency of waste collection varies across regions. Generally high income countries have a higher collection efficiency, upwards of 95% although these regions spend a very small fraction of their MSW budgets on collection, maybe just 10 %. Low income countries on the other hand, spend almost their entire MSW budget on collection while achieving efficiency of just 50-60%. That possibly because they do not deploy technology intensive disposal methods like incineration. The waste is just dumped in remote locations. So the disposal cost is virtually zero.

Disposal measures comprise landfill most widely. Composting, incineration and recycling are adopted quite extensively in the more developed world. In the low income regions across the world, dumping is widely practiced. As opposed to landfilling, it is less scientific, less controlled and more random.

Incineration is increasingly

being looked at as a useful tool with better technology options. Incinerators can be set up close to waste generation sources reducing the need for transportation and resulting GHG impacts.

They can be used to generate power as a byeproduct too. However the process requires additional effort to segregate waste before incineration and has some time before there is greater public acceptance and less fear of creating pollution in the neighbourhood. Among the other disposal methods, recycling needs closer attention. This enables safe disposal of large amounts of inorganic waste while allowing value extraction.

ULBs need to put in place awareness campaigns which will encourage citizens to segregate waste into different categoriespaper, metal, glass, plastic, cloth, etc and deposit them in specified bins at pre-designated places like supermarket entrances.

Recyclers will then be able to collect material for recycling in sufficient quantities from fewer locations to make the process more economically viable. Recycling however has some limitations.

For example the material produced from recycled waste may have limited value and applications, as in the case of recycled plastic, compared to that produced from virgin material. Low commodity prices, as prevailing now, are a further threat to recycling where the prices of the material extracted may not justify the costs of recycling.

As seen here, the Debate

on Waste Management is now widespread among policy makers, local bodies and citizens. The debate is, however, hampered by its almost exclusive focus on ‘Management’.

It is necessary that the supply side, i.e., the generation of waste receives greater attention.

Urban lifestyle with its focus on convenience and ease is clearly becoming unsustainable in many ways. The steeply increasing use of plastic is one such example where all daily essentials, medicines and foodstuffs are being sold in plastic packaging rather than glass and metal.It is leading to mountains of waste, much of it nonrecyclable. Therefore there is an urgent need for intervention by all stakeholders. Citizens can imbibe new practices that mitigate the negative consequence of their new lifestyles. Urban local bodies need to engage actively with residents and seek their participation in community-wide programs that raise awareness, reduce the generation of waste and enable reuse/recycling of the waste which gets generated any way. Policy makers can incentivize recycling and encourage use of recycled material (lower duties for example).

Other policy levers can be explored.

By 2025, the world will generate over 2 billion tonnes of waste each year against the 1.5 billion tonnes today. Undoubtedly, there is a lot that needs to be done if we are not to be buried under this mountain of waste.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

31

Article | Water Supply Management

24 x 7 water supply a distant dream for Indian cities!

Cities need to take a greener path to growth, both the crisis in availability of water and gaps in distribution are growing with increasing burden on exisiting resources and infrastruture. There is a water emergency already declared by Mother Nature and cities must rise to the wake up call without any further delay

Ranjan K Panda Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network ranjanpanda@gmail.com

32 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

ON 27th of April 2016, India’s Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti informed Parliament that almost 30 crore people of the country are facing drinking water scarcity. A few days before this the central government has informed the apex court of the country that 33 crore people in 256 districts across 10 states have been affected by the drought.

The country has suffered two consecutive years of drought and this year is facing one of the severest heat conditions all across.

Acute water scarcity has started to prevail since February in many parts and that has sent shock notices to people and planners alike.

Drought makes rural people migrate out to cities in search of better opportunities and facilities.

However, cities are starting to crumble already owing to severe water scarcity.

Eacy city is failing in its duty to accommodate the ever increasing immigrants, most of whom settle in shanty slums, with a life

provided with even basic minimum facilities.

The decade 2001-11 has been a defining one as far as change in rural-urban population is concerned.

This decade saw a 32 per cent growth rate of urban population in comparison to 12 per cent for the rural population. 31 per cent of people started living in urban areas in 2011 and it is set to increase to about 40 per cent by 2020. Larger cities drive much of this population growth.

Indian planners have also been drastically focusing their attention to urban areas, more so to such large cities.

The Smart City scheme is just one of the indicators of this. However, the Indian cities grow at the cost of the nearby villages – encroaching upon their farm lands, forests, rivers and other water bodies; and their own green spaces and water resources. This makes the cities draw more and more water from rivers, dams and reservoirs in nearby or far off places.

Take Delhi for example.

Delhi: short in supply, high in discrepancy

India’s capital city has one of the most unreliable water supply systems. Not only that the city depends on other states for most of its water supply, but also it supplies almost about 20 per cent less than the requirement. The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) supplies about 835 million gallons daily (MGD) whereas the current requirement of the city is about 1,025 MGD. The city’s water supply has not only been insufficient but highly inequitable. An audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed this out well.

Delhi’s stark inequitability

Per capita supply per day

Below 20 litres 20 to 50 litres 50 to 75 litres 75 to 100 litres 100 to 150 litres Above 150 litres

Source: CAG Audit Report No. 2 of t

Cities have to stop growing at the cost of rivers, water bodies, floodplains and all sorts of water ways.

Then the need to harvest rainwater with increased natural and infrastructural facilities is needed immediately.

Ground water regulation and recharging has to be another major priority.

For the city, it is not only necessary to keep Yamuna alive but also restore all the lost water bodies. Delhi is said to have lost 200 water bodies in a few decades. It now has 600 water bodies as against 800 earlier. The remaining ones are in a highly degraded condition.

Dry reservoirs, suffering cities

As early as mid-February, the city of Bengaluru was under grip of an acute water crisis. Karnataka state’s reservoirs had dipped in their water reserves due to poor monsoon and heat was starting to grow early February. All the thirteen major reservoirs had much lower water than at the

Population served 573,000 879,000 332,000 134,000 40,000 390,000

the year 2013

corresponding time last year. The city’s water supply of 1,400 million litres per day is provided from KRS and TG Halli reservoirs.

According to statistics available till mid-February, all 13 major reservoirs have lower levels than they did at the corresponding time last year. By mid-April, they are further down. While the live storage of major reservoirs of the country is at 23 per cent at the moment, the situation is worse at 15 per cent in South India’s major reservoirs.

All in the country, including the government, are hopeful of a ‘surplus monsoon’ in 2016.

However, a surplus monsoon may not really give big relief to the water supply problems of the cities unless better conservation and management models are put in place.

Bengaluru again is a test case.

The state of Karnataka receives an annual average rainfall of about 1,248 mm but reports point out that the two million odd borewells constitute about 250 per cent of all the rain the state receives. In fact, the situation has gone so bad that a study by a former additional chief secretary of the state warns of a major crisis by 2025 to the extent that majority of people in Bengaluru may have to be evacuated.

Many other cities may also face a similar situation.

In fact, this year most Indian cities are virtually on a water emergency bomb.

The case of Hyderabad shows that aptly. The four major reservoirs that supply

drinking water to the city have gone dry for the first time in three decades!

Governmnet spokespersons have informed that the gap of supply to demand has reached as high as 47 per cent, as the city is providing only about 335 million gallons of water as against the need of 660 million gallons. Water is being fetched from Godavari and Krishna rivers, almost 200 kilometers away.

Gap is only increasing

As per the Census 2011 figures almost 30 per cent of urban households did not have drinking water facilities within their premises, let alone being supplied with 24x7 water.

The bigger challenge is that this supply is inconsistent, inequitable and not sustainable. Then, quality of the water remains another huge problem.

A working group report of the erstwhile Planning Commission pointed out the problems with the sources, because most cities fetch water from long distance; enormous inefficiencies; and also a big challenge that exists due to the huge gap between water supply to the rich and poor. It also pointed out how the water supply goes down with the reduction in the size of the cities.

While class I cities had a 73 per cent coverage of water supply, class II cities had 63 per cent, class III cities had 61 per cent and other cities had 58 per cent.

The report also pointed out that about 40-50 per cent of water was being lost in distribution.

Solutions

With increased temperature, induced by climate change and local factors, water is going to get scarce. Unless the cities take a greener path to growth, both the crisis in availability and gaps in distribution will only grow. There is a water emergency already declared

by Mother Nature and cities must rise to the wake up call without any further delay. Cities have to stop growing at the cost of rivers, water bodies, floodplains and all sorts of water ways.

Then the need to harvest rainwater with increased natural and infrastructural facilities is needed immediately. Ground water regulation and recharging has to be another major priority. Then they need to adopt green construction technologies, reducing concrete areas and increasing green spaces with vegetation cover that promotes forest species suitable to local ecology. Source security and sustainability with climate change adaptation initiatives need to be put in place.

City water managers need also to start emphasising on two way water supply system: one that supplies treated water for drinking and another that supplies recycled water for other purposes. While trying to use, reuse and recharge most of the water inside thier own geographical limits, city governments have to start contributing to river basin management by working with rural governments as well. All this will gradually change the city water scenarios.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

33

Article | Urban Innovations

Innovations to usher urban sustainability The Copenhagen Wheel, a small device developed

by MIT that attaches to the wheel of a bike, stores energy stores energy from braking into a battery, and provides an electric boost when a sensor detects you’re putting out too much energy to pedal. This Wheel features in Top Ten Urban Innovations adjudged by World Economic Forum.

Cities worldwide have been at the forefront of generating new ideas, discoveries and inventions. Likewise, blooming innovations have ensured that civil societies become technically efficient, economically prosperous and socially responsible in functioning, thus innately achieving sustainability

Mahendra Sethi Faculty, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), India msethi@niua.org

34 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Most Indians have been brought up learning the famous saying that necessity is the mother of all inventions. The zeal to innovate has inspired bright individuals and societies for ages, thus nurturing civilizations. In fact, it would not be incorrect to say that in a sense, the act of innovation is synonymous with urbanity.

But what makes innovations most germane and timely is that the World is on a rapid overdrive to urbanize, particularly evident in the developing countries. World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision by UN DESA projects that continuing population growth and urbanization would add

2.5 billion people to the world’s urban population by 2050, with nearly 90 per cent of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa. By 2050, India is projected to add 404 million urban dwellers, China 292 million and Nigeria 212 million. This would add tremendous pressure on their immediate, national and global resource base for food, energy and materials.

My research in this area at United Nations University, Japan demonstrates that while developing countries like India, China, Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia and South Africa grow economically and urbanize, they also need to decarbonize their economies. This

is plausible only if they become more and more energy efficient for every dollar of GDP generated by them. Appropriately, in the UNFCCC’s recently convened Paris Agreement, the Prime Minister of India has committed to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33-35% by 2030 from 2005 level. This mandates some serious and creative rethinking in the energy production systems and the way citizens consume energy. But could such a revolution really be achieved in our lifetime?

Bill Gates believes that, “Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.” So how are cities across the globe

Disruptive technologies are now becoming the biggest game-changer while dealing with local urban issues. Londoners use a mobile app by the name, Fix my street since 2008 to report municipal problems. This has inspired across different continents various countries like Australia, Korea, Germany, Tunisia and India to start similar mobile apps for some of their cities living up to the challenge of innovation?

Innovations in cities world wide

The World Economic Forum in October 2015 released its report titled, “Top Ten Urban Innovations”. It chronicles ten of the best examples from around the world of how cities are creating innovative solutions to a variety of problems.

Many of these solutions are scalable, replicable and can be adapted to a variety of specific urban environments. Some are possible only due to new technologies while others apply technology to ideas that are as old as the city itself. Within these innovations, four principles surface again and again. They can be seen as a core framework to find innovative solutions to complex urban problems: Unleashing spare capacity: Many innovations cleverly make use of existing yet underutilized resources.

Airbnb, for example, enables the renting out of unused private homes; co-locating schools and recreational facilities enables publicprivate sharing of space; and the circular economy provides opportunities to reuse, recycle and upcycle.

Cutting out the peaks: From electricity and water to roads and public transport, upwards of 20% of capacity sits idle for much of the time ready to cope with demand peaks; cutting out these peaks with technology-enabled demand management or innovative pricing structures can significantly limit the burden on financial and natural resources.

Small-scale infrastructure thinking: Cities will always need large-infrastructure projects, but sometimes small-scale infrastructure – from cycle lanes and bike sharing to the planting of trees for climate change adaptation – can also have a big impact on an urban area.

People-centred innovation: The best way to improve a city is by mobilizing its citizens. From smart traffic lights to garbage taxes, innovations in technology, services and governance are not ends in themselves but means to shape the behaviour and improve the lives of the city’s inhabitants.

All innovations should be centred on the citizen, adhering to the principles of universal design and usable by people of all ages and abilities. Disruptive technologies are now becoming the biggest gamechanger while dealing with

local urban issues. Globally, cities are gradually shifting to electronic-governance and even more so to mobilegovernance platforms to address public services, information, complaints and emergency situations.

Londoners use a mobile app by the name, Fix my street since 2008 to report municipal problems. This has inspired across different continents various countries like Australia, Korea, Germany, Tunisia and India to start similar mobile apps for some of their cities.

In addition, many cities like Bahrain in the Middle-east and Callao in Peru are now using software in geographical information systems to work beyond spatial planning in knowledge creation, management, sharing and decision making.

Intelligent tools are being designed or customized to deal with specific urban sector problems like real time management of water supply networks (Bangkok), intelligent public transit (Singapore), planning and building permissions and its execution (Masdar) and even reducing neighbourhood greenhouse gas emissions (San Francisco). Such innovations individually and collectively tend to create highly efficient, economic and sustainable environ.

Indian experiments

Meanwhile, beginnings made by Indian cities in this realm also need to be noted.

For instance in Delhi, the municipal corporations have shifted to an online system for birth/ death certificates

and to enable people to pay some of their bills and property taxes. In Bangalore, real time technology relays information of bus timings, congested routes and so on. In Indore, the traffic police have installed infrared devices to nab rule violators. Similarly, Lavasa near Pune is repackaging its technical prowess for the coveted ‘smart’ tag. On this front, Government of India has fired all guns to kick start missions like Start Up, Smart Cities and Stand Up that offer a firm opportunity to individuals, groups & institutions, etc. in promoting innovative and sustainable pathways in the way societies function, generate capital, interact and recreate. And there are multiple entry points to target low-hanging fruits or projects that produce co-benefits across different sectors at a minimal investment. It is important to underscore here that ushering innovations for urban sustainability seeks a persistent application by the government, industry, academia and public to work closely, partner in identifying urgent local problems, addressing intermingling issues and eyeing on novel opportunities to deal with them. It also requires a healthy learning and funding ecosystem that promotes lateral thinking, social entrepreneurship, competitions, internships, fellowships, etc. amongst the youth. The future of any city eventually depends upon how open and conducive it is to new ideas, transformations and innovations.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

35

Article | Urban Poor

Slum-dwellers are unwanted and considered to be ‘encroachers’ and their rights are, more often than not, sacrificed in the name of urban development. Planning of new cities should consider the requirements of informer workers and slum dwellers to make urban development inclusive

The Dark Side of

India’s Urban Development Manshi Singh National Desk Research Associate Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA) manshi.s@yuvaindia.org

36 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

India’s urban population has grown from 62 million in 1951 to 377 million in 2011. Though the share of the country’s urban population to its total population is still at 31% (Census 2011), urban India has grown five times since 1961 in terms of population.

For the first time in history, Census 2011 highlighted that the net decadal addition to the population during 2001-11 was more in urban than in the rural areas, thus marking the beginning of a demographic shift. This trend will be an ongoing process with 600 million people expected to reside in urban areas by 2030 as compared to 377 million in 2011. However, despite such a high rate of urbanisation, certain inhabitants of the cities like the informal workers and slum-dwellers are unwanted and considered to be ‘encroachers’ and their rights are, more often than not, sacrificed in the name

of urban development.

The ‘Unwanted’ Informal Settlements

While the number of people residing in urban India is on the rise, equally alarming is the rise in the number of the urban poor. Standing at no less than 76 million, the burgeoning size of the urban poor cannot be ignored. According to UN Habitat, India is home to 63% of all slum dwellers in South Asia which amounts to 170 million people and 17% of the world’s slum dwellers. As per Census 2011, there are 13.7 million slum households in India that live amidst inadequate basic amenities, poor health outcomes, insecurity as well as unstable incomes.

Over decades, successive governments have, time and again, promised the urban poor the provision of affordable housing.

However, these housing schemes for the urban poor

such as Rajiv AwasYojana (RAY), which aimed to make India “slum-free” by 2022 and provide basic services and shelter to every citizen, have not been successful in delivering on their promise. The newly launched Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) by the present NDA government which envisages “Housing for All by 2022” may soon follow a similar path as its predecessor.

A preliminary look at the PMAY guidelines shows that its definition of those who constitute the “All” in its vision of “Housing for All” is skewed.

PMAY ignores housing for the houseless such as migrant informal workers.

Rather the guidelines state that migrants should be excluded from such housing schemes since it induces them to migrate from rural areas. It should be noted that the rural poor are forced to migrate to cities in search of better livelihood

who have largely migrated from rural areas in order to earn a livelihood. Due to construction of large-scale amenities and facilities like metro rail and stadiums which requires extensive stretches of land in prime locations, there is a large scale displacement and eviction of local, generally low-income communities, especially those living in informal settlements. These slum-dwellers are then relocated to the periphery of the cities, far away from their work sites and thus, have to suffer from loss of not only their homes but also their livelihood. opportunities due to lack of investments in rural areas and failing agriculture, not to acquire houses in urban areas. Moreover, those who have pucca houses in any part of India are not eligible for this scheme. This means that slum-dwellers (largely migrant informal workers) who have pucca houses in their place of origin will not have any housing rights in the cities they migrate for work. Furthermore, affordable rental housing which was initially to be part of PMAY is missing from the NDA government’s flagship scheme. These large numbers of slum-dwellers which constitute 93 million of India’s population (Census 2011) also have to live with the fear of being forcefully evicted from the informal settlements they call their home in the urban areas. These informal settlements are the homes and work places of a large number of the city’s informal workforce

The Sketchy Path towards Urban Development

Many scholars have noticed a growing trend in most of the Asian countries, where they want to make their cities ‘world class’or ‘global cities’ (Sassen 1991; Ong and Roy 2011).

According to Ong and Roy (2011), many cities of the developing world aspire to become ‘world class’ in order to showcase their growing importance at the global platform and this is mainly done through excessive building of mega infrastructure projects such as smart cities,metro rail projects, industrial corridors and so on. I t has been an increasing trend in the developing countries world over wherein large cities are placed at the centre of certain economic growth strategies through building of large-scale economic and infrastructure projects which enhance their

potential as “engines of growth” (Kennedy et al.

2011). However, this type of large scale development results in certain problems such as displacement of local population and their livelihoods, environmental risks and so on. These projects also lead to spatial fragmentation and social exclusion since these projects only benefit a certain section of the society, mostly the affluent.

The ‘Smart Cities’ mission, a flagship program by the NDA government, which aims to create 100 smart cities equipped with basic infrastructure does not throw light on the situation of informal labourers in such smart cities. While labourers would be needed not just for the construction of smart cities but also to provide various types of services after its completion, plans for where they will stay and work are not featured in the guidelines. Scholars and critics speculate that such over-planning of cities, as in the case of smart cities, can either lead to exclusion of the informal workers from such cities and resettle them to the urban peripheries or it would inevitably pave the way for indiscriminate growth of informal housing within the cities. Moreover, smart cities should not focus on rebuilding everything from the scratch but instead opt for in-situ upgradation or retrofitting (city improvement).

Rather than focussing on the frenzy to become ‘world-class’, the government should divert its attention on making

cities more ‘humanised’ or ‘people-centric’. In order to move in this direction, participatory and democratic urban governance is needed which facilitates awareness of people’s rights, community participation in the decision-making process, adequate housing and livelihood in the city space, capacity-building of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), properly implemented laws and schemes and most important of all, a life of dignity.

The Way Forward

India is undergoing rapid urbanisation but at the same time it is neglecting the housing and livelihood issues of a large section of its population- the urban poor. In order to address the problem of lack of affordable housing and evictions of informal settlements, priority should be given to make housing habitable, affordable and accessible through community-based, cooperative and non-profit rental and owner-occupied housing programmes; services for the homeless and zero evictions should be included in all the National Urban Policies.

The informal workers who contribute to India’s growing economy should be given access to worker’s rights, basic services, legal entitlements such as decent work and wage. Thus, there is a growing need for making cities more inclusive and where there is a synergy of environmental preservation along with urban development.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

37

Article | Urban Mobility

Urban mobility in the age of smart cities The urbanization process impacts the spatial distribution of land uses and travel demand created by the distribution of activities. Therefore it becomes imperative that the mobility of people and goods should be planned appropriately to minimize congestion and other environmental impacts on the cities

Kumar Dhananjay Freelance Journalist kumardhan@hotmail.com

By 2030, 60 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities, up from about 50 percent today. Over the same period, more than two billion people are likely to enter the middle class, with the majority of them living in cities in emerging markets. The number of megacities with more than ten million people will continue to grow. This is according to a study done

by Mckinsey. The study also says that many people entering the global middle

class will want to buy cars: automobile sales are expected to increase from about 70 million a year in 2010 to 125 million by 2025, with more than half forecasted to be bought in cities. Some automotive analysts have gone as far as predicting that on the existing trajectory, today’s 1.2 billion strong global car fleet could double by 2030.

Obviously, the existing urban infrastructure cannot support such an increase in vehicles on the road.

Youngsters during a group dance at Raahgiri organised at Connaught Place, New Delhi.

38 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Congestion is already close to unbearable in many cities and can cost as much as 2 to 4 percent of national GDP, due to issues such as lost time, wasted fuel, and increased cost of doing business. In India too we are facing the same problem.

If we take the example of Delhi, the national capital, the situation is quite similar. People struggle everyday with chaotic traffic on the roads. Metro that was supposed to bring much relief to the people

has not yielded the desired result because of the ever growing urban population.

Adding to the citizen’s woes is that there is no synchronization between various public transport systems. In many European cities these services are integrated and people travel on one smart card. In addition to the increasing demand for urban mobility, mobility needs are evolving.

Changing travel habits, demand for services to increase convenience, speed and predictability, as well as evolving customer expectations towards individualization and sustainability will require extension of mobility services portfolio as well as business model transformation.

Specialized players from other sectors are assessing opportunities to play a role in the extended mobility ecosystem.

Take for example Delhi.

A new initiative has been undertaken. Raahgiri is a pioneer project. In the heart of Delhi, vehicular traffic is stopped so that people can freely commute, walk and exercise in a place called Connaught Place.

In addition, now there is a proposal to build an elevated cycle track. It aims to promote cycling among the people and to provide last mile connectivity.

“Designs of the project have been prepared by consultants. This is the first time that an elevated cycle track is being constructed in the country. It will be built in South Delhi. As per the plan, the proposed elevated corridor would be made of steel. In Europe,

there are about two-three experiments of such tracks going on,”stated the minister of transport (Delhi), Satyendra Jain.

He further said that the government will provide a cycle to the rider free of cost at the elevated track and after using it, he or she will have to deposit it at the station to be built at the track. According to the plan, government has also proposed to develop cycle track as a tourist destination by creating a lot of activities there.” Each station will have lifts through which people can reach track and ride a cycle free of cost.

Lifts will also have space for cycle if a person wants to ride own bicycle on the track,” Jain added.

In January, the government had announced that it would provide subsidy on purchase of cycles, from the money collected as fines during the odd-even schemes implementation period. The transport minister has also appealed to Delhiites to use bicycles for their daily needs every day instead of using bikes just in their colonies and said that government will build cycle tracks and stands on roads.

Why is the innovation potential not being unleashed? There is a key reason: the management of urban mobility operates in an environment that is too fragmented and hostile to innovation.

Our urban management systems do not allow market players to compete and establish business models that bring demand and supply into a natural balance. It is one of the

toughest system level challenges facing actors of the mobility ecosystems.

There are plenty of solutions and business models available, but very few have managed to smartly integrate them to unleash their full business potential. What is needed is system level collaboration between all stakeholders of the mobility ecosystem to come up with innovative and integrated business models.

Road safety is key for urban mobility.

While travelling in urban places one has to be extremely keen on the safety on the road. Today when road and transport has become an integral part of human life, it’s imperative that road safety is key to everyone’s survival.

Everybody is a road user in one mode or the other.

While the present mode of transport has reduced the distance but simultaneously it has increased risk.

Accidents in cities results in loss of thousands of lives every year. According to a study by Delhi traffic police, “In India itself about eighty thousand people are killed in road crashes every year which is thirteen percent of the total fatality all over the world. Man behind the wheel plays an important role in most of the crashes”.

These fatalities occur mostly due to carelessness of the people behind the wheels or lack of road safety awareness. Hence, road safety education is as essential as any other basic skills of survival.

Behavior is the key while

driving. Safe and efficient use of traffic environment is most important. And also important is formal training in road safety. It is with this purpose that traffic police in various cities have opened Road Safety Cell to generate awareness among road users. What is required is a comprehensive training program to educate the whole range of road using citizens, from a common pedestrian to a vehicle driver.

And that is where the public transport system becomes much more important. It’s not just reduced traffic and congestion on the roads but also makes travelling much more safe. A solution that is begging to be implemented in the urban set up. It must be expanded at a rapid pace to be in sync with growing urban population in India and its ever growing demands.

Solving the mobility challenge will require bold, coordinated actions from the private and public sectors.

Technological advances and commercialization, funding, intelligent policies, and business-model innovation will be needed to realize productivity improvements while creating more sustainable environments in our cities. One has to be optimistic that this will help the world avoid a future of global gridlock.

Already, there is discernible movement towards new “multimodal” services— those that facilitate journeys combining walking, cars, buses, bikes, and trains—as well as shared transportation services.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

39

NEWSCAN

BRIEFS

NEWSCAN

India revises rules for solid waste management after 16 years Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar announced the revised rules for solid waste management with an aim to start more solid waste treatment plants across the country and setting agendas for central ministries, state governments and local bodies

New Delhi: Moving towards the goal of a Swachh Bharat, the environment ministry recently announced a threefold expansion of the country’s solid waste management programme, aiming to cover 17,000 inhabited areas -- to benefit 45 crore people directly.

“As of today the solid waste management programme benefits only 15 crore people. The revised rules will benefit 45 crore. The new rules will be imposed beyond municipal areas, which would benefit 17,000 census towns, villages and pilgrim spots. Earlier, the waste management covered only 4,041 areas, which were under municipal control,” Javadekar said.

“By revamping the waste management programme we have tried to make Swachh Bharat a reality.”

The new rules, to come into effect from April 6, prohibit dumping waste on slopes in hilly areas and the creation of landfills. Open burning of waste has been criminalised, while closure and rehabilitation of old dumps would be worked upon.

“To handle waste in hilly areas, a

40 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

transfer station at an enclosed location would be set up to collect residual waste from where it would be sent to sanitary landfills,” he said. The sanitary landfill, or special areas, would be constructed at a site 25 km away.

The new rules have fixed a deadline of two years for setting up solid waste processing facilities in census towns with population over one million; three years for towns with population less than one million; and five years for towns with population less than two lakh. The Ministry of Environment would implement and monitor the rules, the minister said.

Speaking of the finances, the minister said that municipal bodies would be asked to levy fee on various institutions.

Recognising the ragpickers’ vital role in solid waste management, the government has also decided to register and regularise them. The minister said the government would also provide better healthcare facilities to the ragpickers. “Our aim is to bring ragpickers from informal to formal sector. We have to take care of their health and education. They are doing a wonderful job, we need to realise that they are not the encroachers but part of the system,” said the minister.

Javadekar last year in July announced the national award, with a cash prize of Rs.1.5 lakh, for three best rag pickers and three associations involved in innovation of best practices, Under the new rules, sanitary napkins and diapers would not be allowed to be dumped in the open.

Instead, the manufacturers would be asked to provide dumping pouches for them.

He said that ministry would incorporate hotels, event managers, townships, markets and institutions to educate the public and hold workshops for proper implementation of the rules.

The Ministry of Urban Development, agriculture, power, chemicals and others will be asked to form policies in accordance to the new rules for solid waste management.

“This is in conformation with the ‘extended producer responsibility’ concept where the producer would also be responsible for managing the end waste of the product,” Javadekar explained. Citing an example, he said that companies like Coca-Cola would be responsible for proper disposal of their bottles too.

On criminalising open burning of waste, Javadekar said: “To curb open burning of solid waste, strict action would be taken like considering it a crime under EP Act (Environment Protection Act), though it would also depend upon local governance.”

Every year 62 million tons of solid waste is produced in India of which 43 million tons is collected and only 12 million tons is treated and the rest dumped.”We have to care, because by 2030 the solid waste would increase to 165 million tons and by 2050 it would be 436 million tons,” said Javadekar.

At present there are 553 solid waste treatment and processing plants in India, of which only 13 plants use wastes with high calorific value to produce energy. The solid waste management rules were first laid down in 2000, during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Since then the rules have remained static.

NEWSCAN

23 cities submit Smart City Plans under Fast Track Competition New Delhi: All the 23 cities and towns from as many States and Union Territories that were given an opportunity to participate in the ‘Fast Track Competition’ under Smart City Mission submitted revised Smart City Plans today to the Ministry of Urban Development. April 21, 2016 was set as the deadline for submission of proposals by the Ministry.

The revised plans of these 23 cities, including 15 capitals, would be evaluated

by May 15 this year and those meeting the benchmark set by the winning cities in the first round of ‘Smart City Challenge Competition’ will be announced for extending central assistance.

Since only 12 States and UTs were represented in the first list of 20 mission cities announced earlier, the Ministry offered an opportunity to the highest ranked city in the first round of competition in each of the unrepresented 23 States and UTs to participate in Fast Track Competition in pursuance of the principle of urban transformation across the country.

After evaluation of Smart City Plans of 97 cities in the first round of competition and announcement of the first list of 20 smart cities, the remaining were informed of the deficiencies in the plans. The inadequacies identified included lacunae in assessment of cities, disconnect between citizens’ aspirations and vision documents, disconnect between vision document and SWOT analysis, too ambitious nature of plans, mismatch between costs and resource mobilization, lacunae in implementation plans and result orientation.

The 23 cities that submitted their revised Smart City Plans under Fast Track Competition along with respective rank in the first round of competition are : Warangal, Telangana (23), Chandigarh (24), Lucknow (29), New Town Kolkata (30), Panaji, Goa (32), Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh (39), Dharmashala (59), Faridabad, Haryana (60), Raipur, Chhattisgarh (62), Bhagalpur, Bihar

Highlights ♦♦ Lucknow, Bhagalpur, Raipur, Ranchi, Chandigarh, Dharmashala, Dehradun, Imphal and Warangal in competition ♦♦ Evaluation of Smart City Plans to be done by May 15 ♦♦ Another 40 Smart Cities would be selected during 2016-17 and the remaining 40 during the next financial year (65), Shillong, Meghalaya (70), Namchi, Sikkim (71), Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands(73), Diu, Daman & Diu (74), Oulgaret, Puducherry (75), Silvassa, Dadra & Nagar Haveli (78), Imphal, Manipal (83), Ranchi, Jharkhand(84), Agartala, Tripura (85), Kohima, Nagaland (90), Aizawl, Mizoram (93), Kavaratti, Lakshadweep (95) and Dehradun, Uttarakhand (97).

The regular second round of City Challenge Competition for the remaining 97 cities included in the Smart City Mission got underway on April 1st and these cities will have to submit revised smart city plans by June end this year.

Those of the 23 cities included in the Fast Track Competition and fail to be selected can also join this second round of competition. While 20 smart cities were selected during 2015-16 as per the Mission Guidelines, another 40 would be selected during 2016-17 and the remaining 40 during the next financial year. Each city selected in different rounds of competition will be given central assistance of Rs 200 cr in the first year and Rs 100 cr each during the subsequent three financial years. State governments and respective urban local bodies will provide matching funds to the same amount. Accordingly, each mission city would get a total assistance of Rs 1,000 cr over a five year period.

BRIEFS

GHMC seeks govt nod for Musi skyway project Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) commissioner, B Janardhan Reddy informed that GHMC sent the skyway proposal to the state government seeking an administrative sanction for the Rs 5,900 crore project along with a request to fund the project. The government will soon take a call on it.

The GHMC has also sought environmental clearance for the project since it is to be built on the river bed.

WhatsApp number for complaint against encroachment Chandigarh Municipal Corporation recently launched a WhatsApp number (9872741138) for lodging complaints against temporary encroachment. The civic body has been at the receiving end for its failure to address the problem of vendors illegally encroaching upon market corridors in front of shops.

Solan to be upgraded to corporation Himachal Pradesh government is all set to upgrade Solan Municipal Council into a corporation. Solan town fulfils the condition of minimum 50,000 population and other prescribed norms for a corporation and the urban development department has asked the district administration to send a detailed proposal, state UD Minister Sudhir Sharma said.

The government had already given an in-principle approval to the proposal. Solan would be the third city to have its urban local body upgraded into a municipal corporation.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

41

BRIEFS

IMC begins revival plan of Sirpur Lake Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has come up with a plan to revive the Sirpur Lake and set up a research centre to study the birds and biodiversity in the surrounding area. More than 150 species of migratory birds arrive every year at the lake during winter. The idea of having a research centre here had been first floated in the year 2000 when the area surrounding the lake was declared wetland by Lake Conservation Authority, Bhopal.

NEWSCAN

NDMC to end manual applications for building permits by May 15; MCDs by May end

Railways to solve water problems in MH cities Indian Railways has come to the rescue of people facing acute water crisis in Navi Mumbai and Thane as the public transporter has offered water to Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC).“We have permitted NMMC to lift water from our railway dam at Dighe for the next three months,” Central Railway General Manager SK Sood said in a statement.

Lucknow Metro to get 450 M Euro loan from EIB Lucknow Metro will get a loan assistance of 450 million Euros from European Investment Bank for its Phase-1A project.

An agreement in this regard was signed in Brussels recently in the presence of PM Narendra Modi during his visit to Belgium. The loan amount will be released in two tranches of 200 million Euros and 250 million Euros.

The loan agreement was signed by the Indian Ambassador to Belgium Manjiv Singh Puri and Vice-President of European Investment Bank Jonathan Taylor.

42 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

new delhi: Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu has expressed concern over what he called the paradox of India being among the fastest growing economies of the world but perceived to be difficult to do business and invest. He was speaking at a Workshop on ‘Ease of Doing Business for Construction Permits in Delhi’ organized by the Ministry of Urban Development.

Stating that improvement in ‘ease of doing business’ in urban areas of the country would lift millions out of poverty, Naidu urged other cities and towns to follow the integrated and simplified online application and sanction systems being introduced by the urban local bodies in the national capital.

Naidu said increase in congestion even after building more and more roads and flyovers is one such paradox which is a result of deficient urban planning and processes. “Despite being a vibrant democracy, legislatures not passing Bills in time on certain occasions is another paradox and such situations should be resolved to enable the country emerge as an economic power that it deserves to be” said the Minister.

Naidu stated that simplified online application and sanction systems being introduced in Delhi and Mumbai would be implemented in all cities and towns in

a phased manner. He said that improving the ease of doing business in urban areas would lift millions out of poverty through increased investments and employment opportunities. Making a presentation on the new online procedures at the Workshop to over 200 architects, engineers and others, Chairman of New Delhi Municipal Council Naresh Kumar said that the Council would not accept manual applications for building permits after 15th of next month.

During a similar presentation on behalf of all the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi, Dr Punit Goel, Commissioner of South MCD said that the corporations have completed most of the integration with all other external agencies through a Common Application Form and would be in a position to eliminate manual applications by the end of next month.

Dr Goel further said that the Corporations are ready with an online Automatic Calculator for estimation of different charges to be paid by which the owners and architects could find the costs to be paid. Fee to be paid can be worked out by furnishing information about colony category, plot area, floorwise covered area, building type, etc.

Rajiv Gauba, Secretary (Urban Development) and Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary (Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion) while expressing concern over India’s ranking in respect of ‘ease of doing business in construction sector’ urged the urban local bodies in Delhi and Mumbai to take necessary actions to ensure that the people and other stakeholders in Delhi and Mumbai make full use of simplified online application and sanction platforms.

Urban local bodies of Delhi were asked to consider if separate payment of processing and sanction fee could be merged to make it one single payment as it would positively impact ease of doing business ranking. DIPP officials also urged Delhi urban local bodies to ensure that manual submission of applications is brought to an end by the end of next month.

Subscribe to

UrbanUpdate

For 2 Years (24 Issues) Rs 1,800 X

A magazine dedicated to Urban Infrastructure, Governance & Sustainability

Rs 9,00

For 1 Year (12 Issues) Rs 1,000

X

Rs 5,00

Subscription form Please fill this form in Capital Letters First Name: .............................................................................................Last Name: ................................................................

Designation/Profession: .........................................................................Organisation: .............................................................

Address: ....................................................................................................................................................................................

City: ........................................................................................................Postal Code: ..............................................................

State: ......................................................................................................Country: ....................................................................

Telephone: ..............................................................................................E-mail: .......................................................................

Website: .....................................................................................................................................................................................

I would like to subscribe for 1 Year 2 Years Cheque/DD/MO No: ...............................................................................Drawn on: ............................................(specify bank) Dated: .........................................For Rupees: ..........................................................................................................................

In favour of ‘All India Institute of Local Self-Government’ is enclosed.

Mail this form at Address:

All India Institute of Local Self-Government

Sardar Patel Bhavan, 22-23, Institutional Area, D Block, Pankha Road, Janakpuri, Delhi-110058, Phone No. 011-2852 1783 / 5473 Subscription Terms & Conditions: Payments for mailed subscriptions are accepted only via cheque or demand draft • Cash payments may be made in person • Please add Rs 50 for outstation cheque • Allow two weeks for processing of your subscription.

BRIEFS

BMC to set-up over 20 e-waste collection centers Seeing the quantum of e-waste being generated in the city, The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has planned to set up 24 e-waste collection centres across 24 civic wards in Mumbai. These centres will be set up under a public-private partnership model. Such an arrangement would facilitate the collection of hazardous e-waste from those sources that generate it and get the waste disposed of in an environment-friendly manner.

TMC to create housing stocks with free FSI Thane Municipal Corporation has planned to create housing stocks in order to provide affordable houses for the common man. The civic body will give free Floor Space Index to developers and in lieu of payment will take flats in their possession. TMC is thus set to become the first civic body to create housing stocks in this manner.

PCMC calls citizens to chip in with project ideas The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has invited citizens to suggest development ideas for the area and made a budgetary provision of Rs 5 crore for implementing these “innovative schemes”. “We are discussing the proposals and have invited suggestions. The projects could be for senior citizens, children, physically disabled, women’s welfare, river improvement or for a social project. Nothing is in the pipeline yet but the provision has been made for projects,” civic chief municipal commissioner Rajeev Jadhav said.

44 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

NEWSCAN

NITI Aayog launches Urban Management Programme “

new delhi: To tap the expertise of Singapore in urban sector to build capacities in State Governments and ULBs to design efficient solutions to urban problems, NITI Aayog launched the Urban Management Programme in Vigyan Bhawan New Delhi. The Programme has been designed by NITI Aayog, Temasek Foundation and Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) under the platform of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between NITI Aayog and the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE).

The Launch event was chaired by Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Dr Arvind Panagariya. Member NITI Aayog, Dr Bibek Debroy, High Commissioner of Singapore, Kong WyMun, CEO of Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE), Kong WyMun, CEO of Temasek Foundation Benedict Cheong and senior officials from State Governments attended the event. About 150 participants were present in the event.

Dr Arvind Panagariya, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog while launching the Programme addressed the participants and gave them a holistic picture of issues involved in urban transformation. In order to effectively realise the vision of urban transformation, one of the key objectives is to build sufficient capacities in the Urban Local Bodies and State Government in urban management and provide greater financial and functional autonomy to the ULBs. Dr Bibek Debroy while addressing the participants emphasized on improving governance particularly of the census towns whose number has significantly increased between census 2001 and 2011. CEO of Singapore Cooperation Enterprise and CEO of Temasek Foundation also addressed the participants and emphasized on the importance attached by Singapore to their partnership with NITI Aayog for the Urban Management Programme.

“Collaboration Document” for

To successfully achieve the vision of urban transformation it would be important to build the municipal cadre and provide stability of tenure to officials in municipalities.

Dr Bibek Debroy, Member NITI Aayog

organising this Urban Management Programme was also signed during the Launch event between NITI and SCE,

by Sunita Sanghi, Adviser, Urbanisation, NITI Aayog and Kong WyMun, CEO of Singapore Cooperation Enterprise. The year long Programme would comprise a series of highly interactive workshops and advisory sessions and focus on Singapore’s and international best practices in areas of Urban Planning & Governance, Water and Wastewater Management, Solid Waste Management and bringing in private sector efficiencies in urban infrastructure and also identify key challenges faced by implementing agencies in these areas. Urban Management experts from Singapore from Surbana Jurong, CH2M and Pricewaterhouse Coopers would conduct the workshops. Towards the end of the Programme, advisory sessions would be held to develop Strategic Base line Frameworks to address the key challenges in identified areas of Urban Management.

The experts from Singapore explained in detail the structure and content of workshops on Urban Planning & Governance Water, Wastewater and Solid Waste Management and Public Financing (PPP). The participants from the States raised issues related to challenges faced by them in water and sanitation, waste management, structuring and administering PPP contracts etc. These issues would be taken up in detail in the sessions in workshops to be held focusing on individual subjects.

NEWSCAN

BRIEFS

NEWSCAN

World Bank Approves $100 Million for Urban Water Supply Modernisation Bengaluru: The World Bank will support the efforts of HubballiDharwad, the second largest urban centre in Karnataka, to become one of the first Indian cities to provide citywide, continuous, piped water supply to its residents.

The $100 million Karnataka Urban Water Supply Modernization Project (KUWSMP), approved today by the World Bank Board, will help bring clean water to one million citizens of Hubballi-Dharwad, including 160,000 people who live in slums and currently depend upon public standposts or private vendors for water. The Project will finance physical investments in the water supply system for the twin cities, and support city authorities in strengthening systems and procedures required to sustainably close the current water service delivery gaps, according to the World Bank.

“No major city in fast-urbanizing India provides its residents with continuous piped water supply, a situation that particularly affects the poor, women and children, who spend time and money to secure water for their basic needs,” says OnnoRuhl, World Bank Country Director for India.

“The Government of Karnataka and the

city authorities of Hubballi-Dharwad are trying to change this reality. The World Bank is pleased to support their efforts to ensure that all the citizens of the twin cities, including the poor who usually remain under-served in most urban areas, have access to clean water in their homes.”

Most Indian towns and cities supply water intermittently. According to the Ministry of Urban Development, only

50 percent of consumers in most cities have household connections to the pipe system, while the poor are typically not connected at all, and have to pay significantly higher prices to purchase water from private vendors. Women and children bear the cost of coping with intermittent supply by spending time collecting water from public standposts or waiting hours for water to become available.

Odisha to provide 135 lt water per person daily Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik dedicated 100 drinking water supply projects, which will benefit 45 urban local bodies and would cost Rs 63 cr. The Odisha government is working towards providing 135 litres of water per person per day and for piped water supply connection to all urban households, including the slum areas, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said.

In order to achieve the objectives, Patnaik said that efforts should be made to augment water resources in the uncovered areas, to improve transmission and distribution system and replace old pipe networks. The State government is committed to provide equitable, affordable, sustainable and safe water to all the urban population with a special focus on the poor, he added.

Patnaik informed that in December last year, the State government had simplified the procedure for providing drinking water supply connections to the urban poor, and this has resulted in increasing 68,000 new household connections benefiting about three lakh urban poor.

He announced that the State government will provide free domestic water supply connections to all urban poor and economically weaker households by waiving the upfront connection fee of Rs 500 per connection. Patnaik said that the Housing and Urban Development Department has identified 422 water-scare areas in 185 wards of 24 urban local bodies experiencing shortage of water during summer. He added that efforts should be taken to provide long term solutions.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

45

BRIEFS

CMC to fine Rs 2k for washing cars in morning To check misuse of water during the summer, municipal authorities in Chandigarh have decided to impose a fine of Rs. 2,000 on anyone found washing cars or watering plants in the morning hours. “Washing cars, watering plants from 5:30 am till 8:30 am will not be allowed in the city as part of measures to check misuse of water,” Chandigarh Municipal Corporation Executive Engineer BK Dhawan said.”

Delhi to opt for mechanized sweeping Municipal Corporations in Delhi plan to use self-propelled hydraulic machines to sweep roads under its jurisdiction.

“Most of the municipal areas comprise small colonies or residential areas, which makes mechanized sweeping almost impossible. We will use small machines to go for an environment-friendly way of sweeping,” said Radhey Shyam Sharma, chairman, standing committee, South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

MTNL to provide technical assistance to MoUD Government-run telecom company MTNL will provide Information and Communications Technology (ICT) platform for enabling solid waste management in urban local bodies under the Centre’s flagship Swachh Bharat Mission. An MTNL spokesperson said, “Our ICT solution to urban local bodies (ULB) will include vehicle tracking system, mobile application for the ULB operational staff and citizen portal for complaint management and transparency.”

46 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

NEWSCAN

Delhi gets modern, user friendly public toilets at 20 locations New Delhi: Delhi got modern and user friendly public toilets made of high- end composite materials used in air craft and high class rail coaches at 20 different locations, costing Rs 13 lakh each. One such ‘Swachh Shauchalay’ consisting of 4 toilet seats and 4 urinals was inaugurated by the Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu at Sikka Market in Preet Vihar, East Delhi. Local corporators and dignitaries did so at 19 other locations across North (5), South (6) and 9 locations in East Municipal Corporation of Delhi areas.

Speaking on the occasion, Naidu said there is a shortfall of about 4,000 public toilets in the three MCD areas and measures are being taken to bridge the gap under Swachh Bharat Mission. The shortfall includes 5,318 in South Delhi, 3,311 in the North and 2,508 in the East MCD area after constructing a total of 7,061 public toilet seats since the launch

of Swachh Bharat Mission in October, 2014. He said that about 6.50% of urban people use public toilets and required infrastructure needs to be ensured in urban areas.

Stressing that Delhi should lead by example in ensuring cleanliness, Naidu urged the people, municipal bodies and the Delhi Government to rise to the occasion. These toilets have been installed by the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), a Public Sector Undertaking of the Ministry of Urban Development, under Corporate Social Responsibility. Such toilets will be made available at 10 more locations by NBCC.

SPV for Bhubaneswar Smart City takes off Bhubaneswar: Bhubaneswar became the first city to get its Special Purpose Vehicle take off holding the first meeting of the Board of Directors recently at which several operational decisions were taken. At the first Board meeting R. Balakrishnan, Development Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary to Government of Odisha was appointed as Chairman of the SPV, Vice-Chairman of Bhubaneswar Development Authority as Managing Director and R Vineel Krishna as the CEO of ‘Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited’. A 16-member Board of Directors was set up with representatives of various departments and agencies of the Odisha Government, one representative of Government of India and 5 Independent Directors of which at least one will be woman.

Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited, the Special Purpose Vehicle will have Authorised Capital of Rs.500 cr, divided into 5 crore shares of Rs.100 each. Of this, the Government of Odisha and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation will have a share of Rs.112.50 cr each while Bhubaneswar Development Authority will contribute share capital of Rs.250 cr. The Board in its first meeting also decided on delegation of financial powers. CEO can accord administrative approval for projects up to Rs.7 cr, Managing Director –up to Rs.10 cr, Executive Committee of SPV –up to Rs.25 cr and the Board up to Rs.100 cr. projects costing over Rs.100 cr will be sanctioned by the state government.

Under Smart City Mission Guidelines, SPVs for each smart city are to be set up to enable faster execution of projects by delegating to them powers of various concerned departments and agencies.

All India Institute of Local Self-Government AIILSG conducts Online Assessment Testing and Training Programmes. * Online centres are equipped with state-of-the-art AC Labs with requisite support infrastructure facilities to conduct Online Programmes. * Centres are CAT certified Testing Centres and presently conducting many prestigious Online Programmes with reputed clients like Prometric, MeritTrac, TCS, SIFY, IIBF, JNU, Satvat Infosol Pvt Ltd, Manipal University, Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and others. * Regional Centres - Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Trivandrum are presently having facility for Online Testing Programme.

A I I L SG ON L I N E CE N T RE S

For specific requirement, please contact AIILSG HO Mumbai | E-mail: onlinemumbai@aiilsg.org | Phone: 022-26571713/14/15 Delhi Centre | E-mail: delhi@aiilsg.org | Phone: 011 - 2852 1783/ 5473

NEWSCAN

BRIEFS

NEWSCAN

South Delhi to get capital’s first elevated cycle track DELHI: The government is planning to construct elevated cycle tracks in the capital and may begin the project in south Delhi. PWD minister Satyendar Jain had earlier said he wanted to construct cycle tracks so safe that parents would be comfortable letting a Class V student ride on it. On Monday, he said the elevated cycle track, presently at the design stage, would be safe for riders from eight years to 80.

“Elevated cycle tracks have not been built anywhere. I have researched online and found that some countries in Europe had proposed constructing elevated cycle tracks on trial but they have not been built anywhere. That is why we are looking at various designs being prepared by consultants. As of now, designs have been prepared for three different routes in south Delhi,” said Jain.

Jain said the elevated tracks will be built on level with the Delhi Metro. It is aimed at encouraging people to cycle and will also provide an alternative for last-mile connectivity. “We will also provide bicycles free of cost at one

A representational pic

end of the track which will have to be deposited at the other end after use,” said Jain. He added that the proposed length of the track will be 10 to 12 km and it will be about 20 feet wide.

The track will have a roof with solar panels that will protect riders from sun and rain. It is proposed to be open from 5 am to 8 pm and will also be monitored through CCTV cameras, he said. “We

will also make it attractive for tourists.

There will be stations where they can stop and enjoy the view,” said Jain.

The designs involve the tracks cutting through parks in south Delhi. Jain said, “We have separated roads and parks and we have built fences and locked up the parks. Why can’t a road leading to your house cut through a park?”

Australia plans to build ’30 Minute Cities’ Canberra: Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull recently unveiled an ambitious funding plan to build “30 minute cities,” where residents can access all essential work, school and lifestyle services within a half-hour commute.

Turnbull released the Commonwealth’s Smart Cities Plan in Melbourne, a strategy that will see the federal government fund state infrastructure projects on the condition that they meet a number of criteria including increased economic growth or tax revenue.

The plan outlines an infrastructure financing unit to work with the private sector on “innovative financing solutions,” and an initial $50 million to “develop business cases and investment options” for major infrastructure projects. An Australian newspaper reported that long-term bonds would be issued to lock in low interest rates and fund major projects.

48 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

At the heart of the document is a blueprint to transform Australian cities into “30 minute cities,” where “no matter where you live, you can easily access the places you need to visit on a daily basis.”

“It means that you ensure that your cities are designed so that wherever people live, they can reach within a reasonable time, 30 minutes, somewhere where they can work, somewhere to study, somewhere to recreate,” Turnbull said at the official unveiling of the policy.

Cities Minister Angus Taylor said the Commonwealth was interested in outcomes and not handing over blank cheques.”If we are to have the impact we want in cities policy – facilitating quality jobs, more housing and better connectivity – as well as a return to taxpayers, we need investments, not grants,” he said.

NEWSCAN

Haryana assembly passes bills to improve civic amenities Chandigarh: The Legislative Assembly of Haryana recently passed the Haryana Municipal (Amendment) Bill, 2016. The bill seeks to amend the Section 13 A of the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973 and Section 8 of the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994.

A total of eight Bills including one to provide civic amenities to unauthorised residential colonies were passed. The Haryana Management of Civic Amenities and Infrastructure Deficient Municipal Areas (Special Provisions) Bill, 2016, was passed by voice vote. The Bill aims to make a special provision for providing essential services in civic amenities and infrastructure deficient municipal areas in the State. The Act would replace the Haryana Management of Civic Amenities and Infrastructure Deficient Municipal Areas (Special Provisions) Act, 2013.

As per the Bill, it was observed that there are a number of unauthorised colonies or areas which have 50 per cent or more constructed plots and fulfill

other laid down parameters of the Act of 2013. The government had decided to notify colonies as civic amenities and infrastructure deficient areas fulfilling parameters as on March 31, 2015 so that deficient amenities and infrastructure can be provided. Among other Bills, the Assembly passed the Haryana Fire Service (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to amend the Haryana Fire Service Act, 2009. There is a provision for the owner to get the NOC on the completion of the construction of high rise building as per section 15(5) of the Haryana Fire Service Act, 2009. In the absence of such certificate, the owner shall not occupy, lease or sell the building. The NOC is renewed every year. Renewal of NOC is a time taking process and causes undue harassment to the applicant. Therefore, the amendment will help in addressing substantial number of grievances relating to the renewal of NOC. The amendment would also have a provision that NOC will be renewed after every five years.

Municipalities to adopt DigiLocker NEW DELHI: Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad urged the municipal bodies across the country to adopt DigiLocker where the Citizen will have access to all these documents at any time, that help in digitalizing governance and make administration paperless.

Indian citizens can sign up for a DigiLocker at https://digilocker.gov.in, get an account in the cloud storage space that is linked to their Aadhaar (UIDAI) number. Organizations that are registered with Digital Locker can push electronic copies of documents and certificates like driving license, Voter ID, School certificates, etc. directly into citizens lockers, facilitating ease of access and retrieval from anywhere. Citizens can also upload scanned copies of their legacy documents in their accounts.These legacy documents can be electronically signed using the eSign facility.

Rahuri Municipal Council of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra became the first Municipal Council to attain the status of integrated with digital locker for the issuance of all essential documents. Prasad formally launched this service in Delhi as part of Digital India Programme.

“It is important that every Indian should have access to their important certificates on a digitial locker, so they are safe and easily accessible,” Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said. He said digitalisation of governance was essentially meant to bring in transparency in the administration and restore peoples’ confidence in Government.

BRIEFS

NMC gets Rs 96cr for solid waste management The solid waste management project of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has got a boost with Union Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) sanctioning Rs 96.22 crore as viability gap funding. The funds have been sanctioned under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).

The total cost of the project is Rs 308 crore and the remaining expenses will be borne by the private operator.

‘Any time Water’ kiosks inaugurated in Warangal The Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC), in collaboration with NGO Bala Vikasa, launched drinking water vending centres at different locations in the city.

According to Shourie Reddy of BalaVikasa, what they call ‘Sujal Any Time Water (ATW)’ centres offer one litre of clean and cool drinking water at Re 1.

One could also have a pre-paid card to draw water for a month or until the balance expires. He said Warangal is the first city in the country to have water vending kiosks across the city.

BMC to start Biometric identification for hawkers To increase its revenue, Bhopal Municipal Corporation would begin Biometric identification of hawkers and GPS tracking of allocated space in hawkers’ zone. It could mean an end to subletting. Once sublet, a vendor would have to pay irrespective of space being used or not. BMC has around 22,000 registered hawkers. The civic body has begun identifying a hawker zone in its 85 wards.

BMC Budget allocation for new hawkers’ corner is Rs 15 lakh for each ward.

www.urbanupdate.in | April 2016

49

URBAN AGENDA | City Management

The stars are aligning Government schemes, local innovations, financial support, and knowledge sharing from multilateral organisations, foreign governments and their local bodies—a mishmash of a range of factors are working together to bring about a change in how Indian cities are built and refurbished

T

he ecstaticoptimism that the government will reform our cities overnight has given way to more pragmatic realism. The launch of various new initiatives for urban areas is welcome as it is the first time in India that the government has given momentous importance to urban development. They have launched schemes for urban rejuvenation—Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), for building new smart cities which can offer better facilities—Smart Cities Mission, for cleaning up environment—Swachh Bharat Mission, for building affordable houses for all—Housing for All, for restoring heritage in cities-Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), etc.

Most of these schemes are still in the pipeline or say, actual implementation has not begun. But irrespective of whether national and state governments move things slowly or quickly, our cities should be directed towards right trajectory of development. We are at a significant point of history and it is the policy makers and urban experts who can pave the way for sustainable future for cities. The time for assuring good services and infrastructure in cities is long gone. It is the time for the government and experts to work together for ensuring efficient services, facilities and infrastructure to citizens.

It is clear that only governments cannot build Smart Cities. Perhaps, the government is aware of the fact and this is why all the urban development missions, especially Smart Cities

50 April 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Mission, put community engagement on a high pedestal. Citizens too are actively participating in the process.

All the cities selected in the first phase of competition have witnessed proactive citizen participation in which citizens not only voted for the sectors which need immediate attention but also put forward their suggestions for improving management of the city.

Learning from the past Experiences of urbanisation in our existing cities along with a relook at the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act is essential to build a new perspective on new urbanisation strategy. As the Census 2011 reveals, growth will happen in existing urban areas along with smaller cities, which in the last decade have grown at a rather impressive speed.

These urban areas will have to function within the ambits of a strong governance framework as enshrined within the 74th CAA albeit with its limitations which need more elaboration. Municipalities have a range of roles to play in running a city efficiently. The role and responsibilities of all kinds of municipalities are clear but the regulations and their administrative and financial powers need a relook to ensure the smooth functioning of our cities in the changing urban environment.

It is quite clear that lack of employment opportunities in villages is forcing rural populace to move to cities.

Cities have consistently outpaced the rest of the country in terms of economic employment growth. This is because they tend to be more productive in terms

Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor bhau1008@gmail.com

of the value of the goods and services they generate and the efficiency with which they are produced. This is not very surprising as cities accommodate higher-value functions such as corporate headquarters, financial and business services and manufacturing, and high-order public services, such as national and provincial departments, universities and major hospitals.

The McKinsey report on India’s Urbanisation predicts that cities will contribute over 70 percent of India’s GDP. It is required of the government that they not only focus on improving infrastructure and services in cities but also make an effort to create job opportunities in small towns so that metro cities are not over populated.

The report also suggests that India will have 13 cities, if the current pace of migration continues, with population of over 4 million.

This is quite an optimistic approach by the government and other urban stakeholders to take initiatives in their own capacity to address various urban problems. Successful planning and management of urbanisation depends on the strategic capabilities of local governments, defined in political, technical and administrative terms.

These need to be balanced with local responsiveness and popular support in order to manage complex urban issues.

It is true that the change will not be visible in a couple of months.However, with our experiences of the past and our commitment towards community expectations at large, cities can lead the way to a sustainable urban future.

UrbanUpdate

SETTING THE AGENDA FOR

TOMORROW’S CITIES UrbanUpdate A magazine dedicated to Urban Infrastructure, Governance & Sustainability

SUBSCRIBE NOW

50 % OFF ON COVER PRICE FOR SPEAKERS AND DELEGATES PARTICIPATING IN THE 3rd SOUTH ASIAN CITIES SUMMIT

For more details, reach out to Urban Update Stall at SAC Summit Venue or Contact us on + 91 9910 099 320 I contacturbanupdate@gmail.com

Organisers

South Asian Cities Summit-2016 Smart Cities - Aspirations and Challenges May 6-7, 2016, The Ashok, New Delhi