Urban Update February 2019

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

ISSN 2349-6266 RNI No DELENG/2014/57384

UrbanUpdate Volume V, Issue X

February 2019

Cities & COP24 The conference agreed on implementation of the Paris Agreement in 2020

How can our

Smart Cities get

Smarter?

The project is funded by the European Union.

India having become the fastest growing large economy in the world can transform the lives of its people as the size of its economy heads towards the $4 trillion mark, likely to be achieved by our 75th Independence Day

The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

Magazines & Journals

Energy Efficiency

AMRUT Knowledge Management

Seminars

Project Management Customised Training

Sustainable Development Goals

Policy Research

Advisory Services

Swachh Bharat Mission

ECBC

Smart City Mission Capacity Building

Skill Development

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The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

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February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

EDITORIAL

Can Cities be Smart without Smart Citizens?

Rajiv Agarwal | Editor-In-Chief | dg@aiilsg.org

I

t is nearly four years since the launch of the Smart Cities Mission, one of India’s most ambitious urban transformation projects. It is therefore time to introspect and see where we are and where we are heading. Newspaper reports and official statements offer insights into the progress of the scheme. To summarize briefly, in the first couple of years, the mission was slow to take off. The first year was more or less spent on selecting the cities eligible for central funding support. Then the formation of SPVs took some time. But thereafter there has been reasonably good progress; with a big implementation surge in 2018-19 by when a large number of projects worth nearly one lakh crore were tendered out. Of these about 72 per cent worth over 50,000 crore were either under implementation or completed. So many cities are well under way to ‘smartening’ themselves up. But here we wish to take stock of other issues.

What kind of responses or citizen behaviour are we witnessing in our ‘smart’ cities? A look at some examples around us paints a discouraging picture. Is just ‘smart’ infrastructure enough to make a city ‘smart’?

Can cities become truly ‘smart’ without ‘smart’ citizens? When we upgrade infrastructure and technology, is it not necessary citizens also ‘upgrade’ and update themselves, their attitudes and behaviour? Can our cities be ‘future ready’ without citizen participation?

Take for example the efforts to make our streets and public spaces more pedestrian friendly. Cities in their Area-based development initiative have widened walkways giving more space to pedestrians and set up bicycle lanes to encourage cycling. Both these, the sidewalks as well as cycle tracks are used by scooterists/motorcyclists to ride vehicles. It is a sore sight and one is pained at such behaviour.

While one may expect law-enforcement personnel to punish these offenders, it is a sad commentary that our citizens are not willing to voluntarily participate in making our cities better.

Another example form one of the top-

ranking cities. The local body, using MPLAD funds provided by the local law-maker, built high-tech e-toilets across the city. While several of these are earmarked for use by women, men were found using these freely, even the ones on busy thoroughfares in broad daylight. In order to ensure women’s security, the Local body is now forced to deploy security personnel. Such a great waste of effort and money; just because some citizens won’t follow the law.

Well-designed and well-illuminated bus shelters with good seating have been erected for the benefit of bus-riders (these could encourage more to use public transport).

These are defaced with posters, lights stolen, and seats damaged. High quality rubber speedbreakers which enhance road safety while reducing shocks are now in use in our cities.

But these are cut up by unscrupulous citizens to provide uninterrupted riding. Road signage and other road furniture so critical to safety are defaced by posters and often simply uprooted and stolen.

Authorities can introduce several smart technologies and equipment to ‘smarten’ our cities. But unless citizens integrate efficiently and responsibly with these smart solutions, there can be no smart cities. Take for example, technology driven smart electricity metering.

The technology needs to be supplemented with appropriate citizen behaviour like minimizing electricity waste, shifting to energy efficient gadgets, switching off gadgets when not required.

The success of the smart cities mission is firmly vested in the smart citizen – one who respects the law, respects other citizens and respects his city. Compliance cannot only be enforcement driven; voluntary, participative compliance is key for lasting solutions.

Urban Update is organising the next edition of Urban Dialogues in Bhopal. This event, ‘Reimagining Bhopal’ will be one more platform for the best minds among urban planners, policy makers and other stakeholders to discuss and debate the smart cities mission among others.

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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Quotes

Through our cooperation on a range of platforms such as BRICS, IBSA, the Indian Ocean Rim Association, the G20, the G77 plus China and the NonAligned Movement, we will continue to work together in pursuit of a world free of poverty

India is opening up, not only to new opportunities but new technologies.

We want all these new technologies and the stakeholders to participate and avail this great opportunity of Housing for All in India

Cyril Ramaphosa President of the Republic of South Africa

Hardeep Singh Puri Minister of State (IC) Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs

PIN POINT By the middle of the century the world population is expected to increase to ten billion which means we should look towards oceans in order to ensure sufficient food, jobs, energy and economic growth

Renewable energy infrastructure has provided India with a much needed deflationary opportunity to both rapidly expand and diversify the electricity system by leveraging domestic, sustainable resources, thereby improving energy security

Erna Solberg Prime Minister of Norway

Tim Buckley Director of Energy Finance Studies, IEEFA, Australia

BUZZ Mike Hudema

RK Singh

UNDP Mayanmar

@MikeHudema

@RajKSinghIndia

@UNDP_Mayanmar

Amitabh Kant @amitabhk87

Climate Campaigner, Greenpeace

Minister of State (IC) Power and New &

United Nations Development Program

CEO, Niti Aayog

Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better & more sustainable future for all. The SDGs interconnect & in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve each Sustainable Development Goal & its targets by 2030

Bhopal & Indore are the cleanest cities in India. They have taken radical measures: door to door waste collection; No plastic bags; heavy fines; waste segregation; recycling; Effective monitoring and execution; Delhi needs to learn from these cities

Renewable Energy, GoI

India is building one of the most sustainable cities in the world.

60% of the city will be green space or water, the buildings will be powered by solar energy and it will create nearly half a million jobs. We have solutions to the climate crisis.

Let’s start implementing them

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Februray 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

The world is worried about the impact of global warming and climate change. While there are people who deny the environmental realities, the truth is evident and actions need to be taken by all of us

Content

Inside Volume 5, Issue 10

6 8 10 11

Pin Point Equi-City AIILSG Diary Newscan

February 2019

34 36

38

Urban Blog Book Review Urban Agenda

Cities & COP24 The 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference was the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), also known as the Katowice Climate Change Conference. It was held between December 2 and 15, 2018 in Katowice, Poland. Attended by around 200 countries including India, the Conference agreed on rules to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement (COP21), which will come into force in 2020, that is to say the rulebook on how governments will measure and report on their emissions-cutting efforts

Cover Story

24

Smart Cities of Maharashtra Transformation In Leh Is it in the desired direction?

Urbanization has its own perks but it can turn out to be a bane for the citizens if not done in the right direction.

Shift from dry toilets to flush toilets is increasing in Leh city but due to lack of proper sewage system, the streams as well as the ground water is getting contaminated

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Ahmedabad mayor elected as President of Gujarat Mayors Forum

India having become the fastest growing large economy in the world can transform the lives of its people as the size of its economy heads towards the $4 trillion mark, likely to be achieved by our 75th Independence Day

SPVs, municipalities need to work in cohesion Indian cities are under transformation and it is fuelled by an array of schemes of the Government of India.

The role of municipal corporations is changing with the introduction of these initiatives. Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV), which are created under Smart Cities Mission, is a new entrant in the urban domain. These SPVs are looking after projects under the Mission for improving urban infrastructure and civic services. Both the agencies, municipal corporations and SPVs, need to synchronise their operational functioning and priorities for better results. This is much more important for the cities which have different officials heading the SPV and the corporation

Climate’s ‘time bomb’ for world’s groundwater has some serious lessons for Indian cities

Event

How can our Smart Cities get Smarter?

Leaderspeak

38

42

City Image

30

Articles

30

15 22 44 46

42

Gujarat Mayors’ Forum, an initiative of All India Institute of Local Self-Government, strives to empower the elected representatives and municipal officials so that the corporations can improve service delivery mechanism and hence, improve the quality of life of their citizens

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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article Equi-City

Urban Awareness Campaign to sensitize citizens on sanitation in Nagpur Team Equi-City

I

n order to promote health and hygiene and raise awareness about good sanitation habits such as washing hands five times a day, using a toilet for defecation and adopting safe drinking water practices, a campaign has been launched recently by the Equi-City Team in various schools of Nagpur.

The Swachh Bharat campaign was

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February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

launched on December 4. Given the scale of challenges that India faces in the areas of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), this programme is an effort to help India realise the goals of Clean India Mission by 2019.

In 2012, UNICEF identified India with the highest number of child deaths from diarrhoea and pneumonia globally - with 609,000 children dying

each year before the age of five from these diseases.

It also recognised that while up to 99 per cent of Indian households have soap - it is predominantly used to wash clothes, dishes and for bathing.

Hand washing rates among mothers across India are low and the rates are even lower for children. The campaign aims to first raise awareness about

the necessary behaviour changes to be made through communication like advertising, which in its many forms has the power to reach millions and register simple messages.

Following is the summary of campaigns conducted by Equi-City Team in Nagpur:

Sanitation Awareness Campaign (SAC) at NMC Ganjipeth Urdu High School on January 8, 2019

The Equi-City Team along with the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) conducted a Sanitation Awareness Campaign and a Quiz Competition on January 8, 2019, between 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm at NMC Ganjipeth Urdu High School, Nagpur. The Awareness Campaign was carried in the Gandhibag Zone of Nagpur. The EquiCity Team helped to spread awareness in the residential areas and shops close to the school regarding the sanitation, environment and cleanliness of the urban center. The Equi-City Team carried out rally of students in the city and sensitized around 500 people to keep their surroundings clean.

Approximately 50 students of grades 5 to 10 participated in the quiz competition. The winners of the quiz competition for each class were given prizes. Followed by the quiz competition, the Equi-City Team carried out rally of students and teachers in the city. Instructors and students of school, joined this Sanitation Awareness Campaign very actively with great excitement and delight.

SAC at Jaithala Secondary School on January 11, 2019

This awareness Campaign and Quiz Competition were conducted on the January 11, 2019, between 02:00 pm to 04:00 pm at Jaithala Secondary School, Nagpur. Students of the school participated in the Quiz Competition having questions based on Sanitation and Swachh Bharat Mission. The Equi-City Team also carried out a rally of students in the city and sensitized

around 700 people to keep their environment clean.

About 70 students from grades 6 to 9 participated in this quiz. The winners of the quiz competition of each category were presented trophies.

The Equi-City Team sensitized the school students and the residents of Jaithala area and urged people to use dustbins and keep the city clean. The slogans like “Clean city, Green City is my Dream City”, developed enthusiasm and integrity among the students to keep their town clean. Every Indian citizen is responsible for turning this nation into a swachh country. This campaign launched and inspired the city’s younger generation to be clean.

SAC at Kundan Lal Gupta Urdu Prathmik Shala on January 18, 2019

The Team along with the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) conducted a Sanitation Awareness Campaign and a Quiz Competition on January 18, 2019, between 02:00 pm to 04:00 pm at Kundan Lal Gupta Urdu Prathmik Shala, Nagpur. The Equi-City Team carried out rally of students in the city and sensitized around 700 people to keep their environment clean.

The aim of the sanitation campaign is to bring about behavioral changes in people and promote healthy practices, raise peoples’ awareness on cleanliness and strengthen Municipal Services systems in all areas. This campaign raised awareness on the cleanliness of the city by saying no to plastic, using jute or cloth bags instead of plastic bags, keeping the lakes clean, recycling and reuse of waste materials.

SAC at Makardhokda Hindi High School on January 19, 2019

The Team along with the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) conducted a Sanitation Awareness Campaign and a Quiz Competition on January 19, 2019, between 09:30 am to 12:30 pm at the Makardhokda Hindi High School, Nagpur. This effort also included a street play performed by the

students raising the issues of sanitation in the city of Nagpur. Following which, the Equi-City Team carried out a rally of students in the Jagdish Nagar area and sensitized around 1000 people to keep their environment clean.

The rally began from school, the students and teachers along with the Equi-City team rallied in the nearby areas and spread the message of cleanliness and hygiene. Adding to this enthusiasm, the students also performed a street play to draw attention of the audience and delivered the message of the campaign to the mass. Aiming upon the ways of maintaining cleanliness around the city, the street play was a big show for the people around and had a strong message too. The Rally and Campaign was extremely successful and was accepted and valued by the occupants of the locality and others. The Equi-City Team intends to move with this cause of Swachh Bharat mission and Sanitation to direct different campaigns in several regions of Nagpur for mobilizing the cleanliness campaign. It likewise aspires to bring topics to light among the cosmopolitan population of Nagpur.

SAC at Kapil Nagar Hindi Primary School on January 22, 2019

The Team along with the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) conducted a Sanitation Awareness Campaign and a Quiz Competition on January 22, 2019, between 12:00 pm to 02:00 pm at Kapil Nagar Hindi Primary High School, Nagpur. This campaign also included a Quiz Competition and a rally targeting areas around the vicinity of school conveying the messages on good sanitation and hygiene practices.

The campaign also sensitized the residents on segregation of waste into wet and dry waste and the dumping of waste in allocated green and blue bins.

The campaign successfully sensitized around 500 citizens in the locality through the medium of rally conducted by the students, teachers and the EquiCity team.

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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AIILSG Dairy

Ravi Ranjan Guru, Deputy Director General, AIILSG, Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General, UCLG-ASPAC along with others at 4th World Congress On Disaster Management in Mumbai where Mayor session was organised by AIILSG

Exposure Visit Workshop for West Bengal delegates was organized by AIILSG in Delhi under AMRUT

Workshop on Water Audit organized by AIILSG and supported by Urban Development & Housing Department and State Urban Development Agency, Jharkhand

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February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

BRIEFS

newscan

AI for crowd management at Kumbh 2019 Kumbh Mela 2019 witnessed the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology for better crowd management by the police force for the first time. Awanish Awasthi, UP Additional Chief Secretary said, “This will be for the first time that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used in Kumbh Mela. Over 1,000 CCTV cameras are used to monitor various movements across the Mela area spread across 3,200 hectares.” The artificial intelligence technology is used by the integrated command and control centre of police, from which police officials will keep a check at crowd movement, access crowd size and look for any suspicious activity happening in the Kumbh premises. During Kumbh, traffic management is also planned by ensuring management of traffic at multiple channels which will be integrated by using Google maps.

Guwahati to get first e-waste recycling unit Northeast region will soon get its first electronic waste recycling plant in Guwahati. The plant will be set up by a city-based organisation United Global Trust (UGT). This plant will be the first authorized unit to serve all the eight states of Northeast.

As a part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), this project is supported by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

According to the report, the Pollution Control Board of Assam (PCBA) approved the plant. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology identified Guwahati as one of the ten cities having lowest e-waste awareness. Therefore, the UGT will work on spreading awareness regarding e-waste and how it should be collected and disposed.

One drain from 66 towns hit Ganga directly, QCI study reveals NEW DELHI: The Quality Council of India (QCI) released a report under the vision of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) which revealed 66 of 97 towns along Ganga have at least one drain flowing into Ganga river. 31 of these are in West Bengal. West Bengal has 41 towns along the river, followed by 21 in Uttar Pradesh, 18 in Bihar, 16 in Uttarakhand and 2 in Jharkhand.

The survey was carried out between November 1 and December 15, 2018 on four major priority area - overall cleanliness, solid waste management services, drains and screens, and availability of a municipal solid waste plant in the town.

As per the report, 19 towns across the Ganga basin have a municipal solid waste plant within the town, and in 33 towns, inspectors found solid waste floating on at least one of the Ghats of the town. 13 Towns in Uttar Pradesh

including Prayagraj, Ramnagar, Varanasi and Kanpur, were found to have drains directly discharging into the river.

Ten towns in Uttarakhand, including Haridwar and Rishikesh, had a similar issue. In several instances across the states, it was found that dumping sites were close to the ghats.

56 per cent towns in Bihar have drains near the river and have no screens installed. In West Bengal, the report states, “three per cent towns have screens installed at the nullah and in three per cent towns it was found that screens are choked with solid waste”.

State in-charges were given a time limit of February 2019 to achieve 100 per cent source segregation in a stocktaking workshop where the report was presented. Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General of National Mission for Clean Ganga said that his team will do an assessment by mid-March.

New septage rules to bring relief to millions without sewage network NEW DELHI: Now with the septage management rules in place, Vijay Kumar Dev, Chief Secretary (CS) of Delhi has instructed Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to take up the responsibility of monitoring pollution in Yamuna. Dev also mentioned that the new rules will provide relief to millions living without sewage network, if followed strictly.

The DJB organized a sensitization session for officials based on mechanized and environment friendly methods of sewage-septage disposal on January 18, 2019, to help the cause. The purpose is to prevent disposal of untreated waste in water bodies without proper scientific treatment. A DJB official said that the board will now issue licenses for collection and transportation of septage to notified locations.

The new rules are basically guidelines where registration, licensing, training, certification and mechanisation are made compulsory for septage management. DJB will act as a nodal body and the municipal corporations will work together to develop a data bank for effective implementation of rules.

“After January 21, septic tank waste will be collected and transported by vendors only with a valid license issued by the DJB. We will notify Sewage Pumping Station and STP where the septage will be disposed by licensed vendors,” officials said. DJB will deploy employees at notified locations and they will be trained for receiving and proper management of septage. DJB has already issued tenders for this purpose.

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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BRIEFS

newscan

Meghalaya CM launches WhatsApp platform for public grievance redressal Conrad K Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya launched the Chief Minister’s WhatsApp platform for public grievance so that the citizens of the state can post their problems directly to the Chief Minister. The WhatsApp platform was launched on the occasion of 47th Statehood day.

The WhatsApp number that is been floated is 9436394363.

On this 47th Statehood day, CM said, “The WhatsApp platform will help the people to express their problems and concerns directly to the chief minister’s office so that their problems can be addressed.” There will be a dedicated team to monitor this platform and they will receive the complaints and will share the received information to the concerned departments, he added.

Mumbai to get 100 new AWS The India Meteorological Department (IMD) along with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has announced to install 100 new Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) in Mumbai. Currently, there are 60 AWS in the city.

The AWS provides information regarding rainfall, wind speed, wind direction, humidity and temperature. After installation work is complete, there will be an AWS installed at every three square km unlike to the present eight square km.

The additional AWS will help in fetching location-specific weather information, which will help the civic body to be well prepared for instances like heavy rainfall. According to the IMD, Mumbai has one of the largest weather monitoring networks in the country.

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February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

Jamshedpur develops ‘Scientific Landfill’ to improve waste disposal JAMSHEDPUR: Jamshedpur becomes the first urban centre to discard the garbage at a scientific landfill site. Krishna Kumar, Special officer of Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) on January 14, said that four acers of vacant land in Jamshedpur has been turned into scientific landfills, following a thorough inspection. It has a capacity of over 300MT (Metric tons). As per the experts, scientific landfills have a thick base layer made of clay and are topped with a plastic liner which help to eliminate this risk of contamination. The layer above is a drainage layer of medium thickness made up of soil and then a thin vegetative layer to minimize soil erosion.

These layers prevent leachate (water that has passed through waste) to mix with the underground water. Scientific landfills can reduce the production of methane as these act as degassing system. The methane is generated slowly in scientific landfills as compared to the generation speed in ordinary landfills, as the layers soak most of the impurities in the waste disposed.

Vertical wells installed in scientific landfills help extract methane regularly, and the gas can then be used for energy generation.

Jharkhand hopes to improve its ranking in Swachh Survekshan 2019. A senior JNAC official said that the landfill is their ticket to a better rank compared to the last year.

NOIDA authority, HCL collaborate to manage solid waste NOIDA: The City Authority collaborated with the HCL foundation for solid waste management in the city. It generates approximately 600 metric tonnes of solid waste on the daily basis. The officials said that the collaboration will analyse, plan and implement solid waste management. The Noida Authority said, “With a rising population, the waste generated in the city can lead to many problems. If not managed effectively, this will increase pollution and also the risk of diseases. Therefore, there is an urgent requirement for effective planning and implementation of Solid Waste Management for a clean Noida,” authority added. “By leaning from the similar ongoing projects in other cities of the country, the project clean NOIDA is focused on emerging the city as best in class in terms of solid waste management (SWM). This will reduce pollution and will also improve the overall living conditions in the city.” the authority said. Alok Tandon, Chairman and CEO of Noida Authority said, “It was a proud moment for NOIDA that the MoU has been signed for the transformation of the city. This unique association with HCL Foundation will set an example across the country in the area of waste management.

I urge all stakeholders to join hands and work towards the successful implementation of our objective.” Navpreet Kaur, Director of HCL Foundation, signed the MoU and said , “The firm was delighted to partner with NOIDA for implementing Project Clean NOIDA and envision that together they will be able to transform the city’s solid waste management program.” This project is valid for three years, and also includes developing IT solutions for SWM, maintenance, coordination, monitoring and evaluation.

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PM inaugurates India’s first paperless hospital in Ahmedabad Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, inaugurated India’s first digital paperless hospital, the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Medical and Research Institute in Ellis Bridge on January 17, 2019. Under the Ayushman Bharat Program, the hospital will provide free treatment to the poor. The facility is an 18 storeyed state of the art superspecialty hospital that was built at a cost of `750 crore. The 1500 bed hospital is “first government hospital with a helipad for the air ambulance”. Talking about the hospital PM said, “Over 50 crore poor have faith that even for critical illness, the government stands with them, and provide them with medical facilities.”

CPCB asks DPCC to shut illegal dyeing units Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) asked the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to close the illegal dyeing units operating in Sarita Vihar. This comes around a month after National Green Tribunal (NGT) constituted a joint committee to look into a plea alleging operation of hazardous industries in Sarita Vihar. A bench headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, NGT chairperson had constituted a joint committee comprising representatives from the CPCB, DPCC and Sub-Divisional Magistrate of southeast district. This directive came on a petition filed by the Aali Vihar Vikas Manch, alleging that dangerous dyeing units are running in Bhim Colony, Aali Vihar and Sarita Vihar. The committee inspected the area and found various dyeing units which were set up without NOC and permit.

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February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

“India will enter in top 50 in ease of doing business”

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India inaugurated the Vibrant Gujarat Summit’s 9th edition at Mahatma Mandir Exhibition cum Convention Centre in Gandhinagar on January 18, 2019. Speaking on the occasion he said, from the last four years, my government is aimed to reduce government and to increase governance. We will continue to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world. In this global summit, PM invited global business leaders and companies from different countries to invest in India as it is now more business friendly with the required infrastructure and all the facilities in place. “India is ready for business. In the last four years,

our country jumped 65 places in global ranking of ease of doing business. I ensure my team to work harder to take India in the list of top 50 by next year.” said PM. He further said that the international institutions like the IMF, World Bank, and Moody’s have shown their interest and confidence on the economy of India and the development done in recent times.

Mentioning the importance of growth of India and its strong economic perspective, PM said, “The average GDP growth is the highest of any Indian government since 1991 which is 7.3 per cent. Similarly, the average rate of inflation is the lowest for any Indian government since 1991 4.6 per cent. The people who visit India continuously will feel a change in terms of direction and intensity.

In this 9th edition of Vibrant Gujarat Global Trade Show, five heads of states from Uzbekistan, Denmark, Rwanda, Czech Republic and Malta have participated along with the captains of industries from different sectors and more than 30,000 delegates from India and abroad.

Hyderabad ranks 2nd in short term growth category of JLL CMI-2019 HYDERABAD: The city stood at second position among the top 20 most dynamic cities in short term growth category of the world. According to a report published

by World Economic Forum as a part of the WEF Annual Meeting, the rank of Hyderabad dips in short term growth category in an annual report of JLL City Momentum Index (CMI)-2019 (this is yet to be released). The JLL City Momentum Index Short-Term Momentum rankings identify the urban economies and real estate markets which are currently undergoing the most rapid growth. As per the WEF report, “The rankings track a range of socioeconomic and commercial real-estate indicators to identify attributes for success over the short term.” In the last year’s city momentum index rankings, parameters like public infrastructure, start-ups, patent applications, innovation capability and quality of environment were also considered. According to the JLL CMI -2018 rankings, India maintains its pre-eminence in the Short-Term Momentum rankings with four of the top five markets, as its cities register among the highest rates of demographic and economic growth globally, while also benefitting from government efforts to boost business attractiveness and invest in infrastructure. The country’s leading tech hubs Hyderabad and Bengaluru take the two top positions, Hyderabad at first and Bengaluru at second which changes this year as Bengaluru now hold the first position and Hyderabad at second in CMI-2019 rankings.

City Images

‘Seabins’ to swallow floating garbage in oceans Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinski, two avid surfers, started a ‘Seabin Project’ to make oceans plastic free. The Seabin is a floating bin that is placed in oceans at marinas, docks, yacht clubs and commercial ports. Water is sucked in from the surface and passes through a catch bag inside the Seabin, with a submersible water pump plugged directly into 110/220 V outlet. The water is pumped back leaving litter trapped in the bag. It can also collect microplastics (2 mm), oils and pollutants floating on the water surface. It can hold up to 20 Kgs of debris and it is advised to be checked twice a day and emptied as needed.

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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Kureepuzha to get ‘waste to energy plant’ V R Raju, Secretary, Kollam Corporation and Jackson John, Deputy manager, KSIDC has signed the lease agreement for a period of 28 years to set up a waste to energy plant project.

The plant will have a capacity to treat 200 tonnes of solid waste daily, and it will require seven acres of land at Kureepuzha. The plant is going to be developed under PPP model. The officials said, “Local bodies will collect solid waste from households and transport the same to the secondary bin locations.

From there the operators will transport the same in fully covered compact vehicles to the waste to energy plant.” The plant is expected to solve waste treatment issues in Kollam Corporation and its nearby areas once it becomes operational.

Chennai to have ‘smart parking spots’ to reduce congestion The Greater Chennai Municipal Corporation is all set to designate 4,258 smart parking spots in congested areas of Chennai as a part of its ‘smart parking management system’.

The project was initiated after the central government set a deadline of February 28, 2019, for issuing ‘work orders’ for smart projects across all states.

Anna Nagar, Purasawalkam and T Nagar are among few areas identified in the city where the project will be implemented.

The estimated cost of the project is expected to be `1 lakh crore.

Anna Nagar will get 1673 parking slots, Purasawalkam will get 385 parking slots and T Nagar will be getting as many as 2200 parking slots. In addition to smart parking spots, CCTV cameras will also be installed at the parking spots.

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February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

Difficult to live in Delhi, it’s like a gas chamber: SC NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court expressed despair over the lack of implementation of measures to curb air pollution and traffic congestion in the national capital on January 19, 2019. It said that it is better not to be in Delhi which has turned into a “gas chamber”. A bench of justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta pointed out that these problems affect the right to life. Justice Arun Mishra while hearing a matter related to air pollution in the Delhi said that in the morning and evening, there is so much pollution and traffic congestion. It is better not to be in Delhi and it is difficult to live here. Advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court as amicus curiae, told the bench that Delhi has become a “gas chamber”. Singh told the court that authorities always say that they take measures to curb pollution which is different from reality.

The bench said that many polluting vehicles enter Delhi at night. It enquired authorities how they were allowing these to enter Delhi. The court asked Delhi police regarding the action taken to remove unclaimed vehicles that are no longer required in legal cases from police stations. The Delhi government’s counsel told the apex court that they are yet to receive a reply from Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for allotment of land to build malkhana (record room). The bench replied, “If you can dispose of the junk vehicles, you will get several acres of land.” The next hearing on the matter is scheduled at February 1.

US University, Indian experts to study Delhi’s pollutants NEW DELHI: The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between US University and Delhi Government to study the source of city’s pollutants with special reference to PM2.5 levels. The main target of the project is to monitor the real time air quality and identification of pollution sources in Delhi.

The joint study is expected to start with the end of this month and would take around 18 months to complete.

The new study will help authorities to light up the chemical compositions, the pollutants and their sources, said the Delhi government officials on January 7.

The experts from Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and Washington University at St Louis, Missouri would be working together for the study. Earlier before the proposal was delivered in March 2018 by the Delhi government under their first ‘Green Budget’, the MoU was signed on January 3. According to the senior officials, “The

work will be undertaken by personnel of the Aerosol and Air Quality Research Laboratory (AAQRL) at Washington University. The lab has the expertise to identify air quality problems and suggest solutions.”

“Wireless sensors will be deployed by the scientists together with developed algorithm to help monitor real-time air quality and the source at selected locations in the city. This would help policy development to regulate and improve the air quality,” said an official of the Delhi government’s environment department.

At present Delhi’s Air Quality Index monitors eight key pollutants such as PM2.5, PM10, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide, among others. PM 2.5 is believed to be the most dangerous pollutant in the city that directly affect our respiratory system and gets absorbed in the bloodstream leading to heart attacks and cancer.

newscan

Shift to cycling can save up to 1.6% of India’s GDP: TERI According to a report published by the think-tank The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), if at a wide scale, we adopt cycles as the only mode of transport, India can save over `1.8 lakh crore ($255 billion) annually, or 1.6 per cent of the GDP NEW DELHI: The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), a leading think tank dedicated to conducting research for sustainable development in India and the Global South, launched a report titled, Benefits of Cycling in India: An Economic, Environmental, and Social Assessment’ in association with the ‘All India Cycle Manufacturers’ Association’ at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on January 11, 2019.

Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Arjun Meghwal, Minister of State for Water Resources launched the report. Rahul Kapur, Member, All India Cycle Manufacturers’ Association (AICMA), Senior Vice President, Atlas Cycles Ltd and Dr Ajay Mathur, Director General, TERI also graced the occasion.

Suresh Prabhu in his inaugural address stated that cycling should become a dominant form of intracity transport. He also announced the creation of a council which will promote the manufacturing of cycles and work towards its uptake by masses.

Arjun Ram Meghwal by giving example of his good health due to extensive cycling, emphasized the need for inter-generational sustainability.

He reiterated that cycling could play an instrumental role in addressing environmental and health related issues.

He also mentioned about the need for developing infrastructure which could enable a culture of cycling in the country.

Commenting on the report, Dr Ajay Mathur highlighted that safety remains a key concern restricting the use of cycles as a mode of transport. Cycles are also looked down upon and considered a ‘poor man’s mode’, discouraging uptake from a larger section of society. Dr

Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Arjun Meghwal, Minister of State for Water Resources, Dr Ajay Mathur, DG, TERI, along with others present during the report launched by TERI

Mathur emphasized the need to make cycling ‘suvidhajanak’ to enable wider adoption by people.

As per the report, cycling for short distance trips can yield an annual benefit of `1.8 trillion to the economy which is equivalent to 1.6 per cent of India’s annual GDP. Post analysis of Census data, TERI’s report observed that 50 per cent of the people in India use non-motorized forms of transport, such as walking and cycling to travel to work. In rural areas, cycle is the most used mode of transport while in urban areas, two-wheelers are the most used mode of transport.

The report reveals that substitution of just half the short distance work trips by cycles could result in massive savings; savings of up to `27 billion from fuel expenditure and 0.35 Million Tonnes of Oil Equivalent (MTOE) in terms of energy. The study also brings out that cycling regularly for an average distance of 3.5 km for just 120 days can help avoid 4,756 premature deaths. It can also help in reducing air pollution related mortalities, resulting in savings of `241 billion.

The study estimates that access to cycles can help unskilled marginal workers, save up to 23 million labour hours which is equivalent to `112 billion in terms of travel time savings.

The report highlights the need for making cycles affordable and recommends that the government should reduce GST on cycles with cost less than `5000. It recommends that cycles should be brought under the priority-lending guidelines of the RBI. In order to enable development of safe cycling conditions in Indian cities, there is a need for cities to invest on cycling infrastructure. There is a need to create policy which can couple mandatory investment on NMT infrastructure whenever cities invest in motorized and public transport infrastructure.

The report also suggests the need for city to plan cycle sharing schemes and awareness campaigns to promote cycling in the cities. The report further highlighted that cities, should at the same time also discourage the use of personal motorized vehicles through restraint measures like congestion and parking pricing, pollution tax etc.

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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Country’s longest steel cable bridge in Arunachal Pema Khandu, Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh inaugurated India’s longest single lane steel cable suspension bridge – Byorung Bridge on January 9, 2019. The bridge is 300 metre long. Pema Khandu said, “Byorung Bridge, built at a cost of `48.43 crore provided by the DONER (Department for Development of North Eastern Region) Ministry, will reduce the distance from Yingkiong to Tuting by almost 40 km.”

Byorung Bridge is built over Siang River. The bridge is expected to benefit around 20,000 people. Earlier Tuting, near China border in upper Siang, was 192 km away before the bridge was built.

India, Norway signs MoU to work together on SDGs India and Norway on January 8, 2019 agreed to closely collaborate on ocean economy and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), after Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India held talks with his Norwegian counterpart Erna Solberg. Solberg was on an official visit to India from January 7 to 9, 2019. India and Norway released a Joint Statement on January 8, 2019.

The SDGs are a set of 17 global goals set by the United Nations in areas such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice. The two leaders agreed to work together for realising SDGs, including poverty, health, education, women empowerment, clean energy and sustainable use of ocean resources, the statement said. Modi underlined that the Norway Government Pension Fund Global has made a portfolio investment of USD 12 billion.

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February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

Rourkela achieves ODF status ROURKELA: Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) area has been declared as Open Defecation Free (ODF).

In a function organised at Udit Nagar High School on December 31, At the event, for the operation and maintenance of community toilets, six women SHGs signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with RMC. Rashmita Panda, Commissioner of RMC, while addressing the event said, “Rourkela-Smart City having 40 Wards with a population of 3,20,040 and 69,865 households is now an ODF city. We have constructed a considerable number of community toilets for slum dwellers, 64 such toilets are in place with 620 seats and 53 public toilets with total 251 seats were also constructed at various prominent places.” She further added that the target set to construct individual household toilets was 5186. 4290 of the

total are fully completed and people are already using it. The remaining 896 individual household toilets are at the final stage of completion. She also said that residents of these 896 households are now using community toilets and public toilets. Some of them are also using toilets on sharing basis with their neighbours.

On a daily basis, the members of Nigrani Committees and the SHGs approach the residents of their wards through various community meetings and door to door visits making them aware of the health and the environmental issues caused due to open defecation.

The committee will monitor the sustainability of ODF status including other and proceed towards ODF+ & ODF++ in the coming days, said Rashmita Panda. She requested everyone to maintain the status of ODF for further sustainability.

BMC spends `2 cr on Swachh campaign MUMBAI: In the wake of the survey, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is spending `2 crore on awareness campaigns and cleanliness activities all over the city. The BMC has initiated a drive to educate people to provide feedback on the civic body’s efforts on waste management. This step is taken in an attempt to improve BMC’s ranking in the Swachh Sarvekshan 2019. In this exercise, people’s participation also has an important role to play in keeping their city clean because of the method adopted by the central government’s team is different.

The Centre’s team will pay a surprise visit to the city. They will not inform us and can randomly visit places and cross-check our claims by interacting with people. So, we are focusing on making people aware of the BMC’s efforts and steps taken on waste management,” said an official. As per the officials, the civic body’s drive includes wall paintings, street plays, putting up banners and posters, organising swachhata raths and stationing new litter bins. The official said, “The city has very complex geography and huge population. Keeping that in mind, we have chosen three-star categories as we still need to implement some waste management measures.” Assistant Municipal Commissioners of all respective wards conducted surprise visits to their area in the morning to check garbage collection, toilet cleanliness, waste disposal and waste processing by bulk generators. Earlier, in self-assessment of the survekshan, the BMC had given itself three out of seven stars. The survey included checking of waste segregation, doorto-door collection, scientific method of waste disposal, spot fines and waste processing at source by big establishments.

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IoT+m2m Forum strives to transform cities, villages through technological solutions The two-day forum witnessed participation by various stakeholders in a range of discussions dedicated to providing technological solution for building smart cities & villages NEW DELHI: The 6th edition of India m2m + IoT Forum 2019, the national forum on Machine-to-Machine (m2m) and Internet of Things (IoT) focused on applications of these disruptive technologies in smart cities and villages space. The forum was jointly organized by the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, FI Media (Future Internet and Electronic Media) and India m2m + IoT Forum on January 1415, 2019. The forum highlighted the need of forward-looking policies and a proactive government to play a role in the development of smart cities & villages on the bedrock of JAM Trinity which has 1 billion bank accounts (Jan Dhan) + 1 billion Aadhaar + 1 billion mobile broadband users. Likewise, the government’s effort to connect 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats with BharatNet project was discussed to leverage the smart villages concept in India. 5G vision for India was also one of the major highlights of the two-day forum, as 5G technology has

the potential for ushering a major societal transformation in India by enabling a rapid expansion of the role of information technology across manufacturing, education, healthcare, agriculture, finance and social sectors.

The panelists voiced that India must embrace this opportunity by deploying

“

The forum can make noteworthy contributions to the Smart City Program at large. By sharing and collaborating on topics such as technology, multi-country experiences and innovative approaches, I am sure that we can bring together the best minds, and the surest hands to co-create cities of the future Kunal Kumar Joint Secretary (Mission Director - Smart Cities) Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

From L-R: Dinesh C Sharma, Ranjan S Mathews, Tomasz Kozlowski, and Rajesh K Pathak at the India m2m +iot forum 2019

5G networks early, efficiently, and pervasively as well as emerge as a significant innovator and technology supplier at the global level. An emphasis should be placed on 5G touching the lives of rural and weaker economic segments so as to make it a truly inclusive technology.

Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India via her message highlighted, “A city is a complex system, involving many different domains, infrastructure, organizations and activity which need to be integrated for that city to emerge as a smart city.

Standardisation forms a critical part of the work that needs to be done. Being smart cities, a new holistic and cross functional standardization approach is needed, breaking the old ‘vertical silos’ approach, through better cooperation and synergies.”

Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary (Mission Director - Smart Cities), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs stated, “The forum can make noteworthy contributions to the Smart City Program at large. By sharing and collaborating on topics such as technology, multi-country experiences and innovative approaches, I am sure that we can bring together the best minds, and the surest hands to cocreate cities of the future.”

The forum also hosted a dedicated session on ‘India-EU Dialogue on ICT for Smart Cities’ which was organized by the prestigious project, namely, ‘India-EU ICT Collaboration Standardization’ of the Delegation of European Union to India, highlighting the absolute need for ‘Leveraging Standards for Smart Cities’, which brought together key stakeholders and smart city officials.

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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NMC buildings to get rooftop solar panels Solar rooftop panels are to be installed on all Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) buildings to save energy bills.

A work order has been given to a private agency M/s Sangam Advisor Ltd under the smart city mission. An official of NMC said, “The project will be managed under public-private partnership model (PPP). The company will be responsible for its repair and maintenance for 25 years.” The power generated by these solar panels will be given to the MSEDCL through net metering. There are a total of 16 NMC buildings where the rooftop solar panels will be installed. “We will be able to save around `1 crore per year on power supply bills. This is a significant amount,” said the official.

‘Implement pollution control methods in Chhattisgarh’ Mohammed Akbar, State Minister for Housing and Environment directed all the regional officers of Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board (CECB) to ensure strict implementation of Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) provisions for control of pollution in Chhattisgarh, on January 29. The minister has asked to update the online pollution monitoring system during the second review meeting at CECB headquarters. The meeting was with the regional officers from Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg-Bhilai, Raigarh, Korba, Ambikapur and Jagdalpur. Akbar appreciated Bilaspur Municipal Corporation for solid waste management practices in Bilaspur, he directed the officials to implement it in all other Municipal Corporations of the state.

20 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

Germany switch to renewable energy as its major power source FRANKFURT: Renewable energy took over coal as Germany’s main source of energy for the first time last year, as per a research report released by Fraunhofer Organization of Applied Science.

The leap from fossil fuel to renewable energy marks the progress of Germany as it aims for renewables to provide 65 per cent of its energy by 2030 and is making plans for an orderly long-term exit from coal. The research showed that output of solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric generation units increased by 4.3 per cent last year to produce 219 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity out of total national power production of 542 TWh derived from both green and fossil fuels, of which coal accounted for 38 per cent.

“We will not fall below 40 per cent in 2019 because more renewable installations are being built and weather patterns will not change that dramatically,” said Bruno Burger, author

of the Fraunhofer study.

As per the Fraunhofer data, Solar power increased by 16 per cent due to a prolonged hot summer, while installed capacity expanded by 3.2 GW to 45.5 GW last year. The wind power industry produces a total of 111 TWh from both onshore and offshore wind mills constituting about 20.4 per cent of the total power output.

Hydropower contributes only for 3.2 per cent of power production at 17 TWh, as during summers rivers dry out.

Coal plants that run on imported hard coal contributed 75.7 TWh, or 13.9 per cent of the total.

Parliamentary Standing Committee ‘red flags’ health infrastructure in tribal areas NEW DELHI: The Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment released a report on January 3 which stated that there is a deficit of 1,240 Primary Health Centres (PHC), 273 Community Health Centres (CHC) and 6,503 Sub Centres (SC) in the tribal areas of the country. A PHC per 20,000 people and a CHC per 80,000 people should be there under the norms of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). As per the report, the highest shortfall of doctors at PHCs is in the tribal areas of Chhattisgarh (235), Madhya Pradesh (124) and Odisha (90). 22.4 and 27.6 per cent of sanctioned posts of nursing staff and doctors are lying vacant at PHCs and CHCs respectively. Out of the 2,35,637 Schedule Tribe (ST) women who registered under Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)—Maternity Benefit Program—only 1,73, 808 got the benefit in 2017-18 according to the report. `2,400 crore were allocated in the budget for PMMVY in 2018-19, out of which `185.76 crore was for the Tribal-sub Plan, but no funds have been released under PMMVY during the year 2018-19. To overcome the deficits in tribal areas in terms of physical infrastructure and consequent requirement of manpower, a separate Tribal Health Plan is proposed to be implemented in consultation with MoHFW, the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) and the concerned state governments as focused to be accomplished by 2022.

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AIILSG to organize Urban Dialogues

Reimagining Bhopal Bhopal is a captivating blend of scenic beauty, old historic city and modern urban planning. It is popularly known as the ‘City of Lakes’. The title is given because of the 14 lakes which are also the major tourist attractions of the city. Bhopal is also home to some popular heritage sites and art and cultural centers that add on to the tourism value of the city.

The city hosts better environment as compared with the other major cities in India, as it is the greenest city and was also ranked 27th least polluted among the 102 Asian cities. Bhopal was selected among the first 20 cities under the ‘Smart City Mission’. The city has seen a significant development under the smart city scheme but it still struggles with some of the urban issues like solid waste management, mobility, connectivity, governance and security.

There are several issues that need consideration such as – inefficient water distribution system which is unable to fulfill the requirement due to the increase in population and municipal area; Lack of full-fledged sewerage system; Inspite of the implementation of smart city initiatives Bhopal city lacks metro facility hence the major population is dependent on buses which in turn causes congestion and pollution issues.

Need for a change ‘Urban Dialogues – Reimagining Bhopal’ strives to focus on addressing urban problems that the city is facing.

Each conference under the ‘Urban Dialogues’ focuses on laying a roadmap for building better urban future for a

city that is facing certain urban issues.

The conference will take into account future plans of the government of Madhya Pradesh to make Bhopal city smarter and initiatives taken by the authorities to improve basic services for the citizens. The purpose of the conference is to provide a common platform for the speakers that include city experts, municipal officials, smart city officials, and other intelligentsia to brainstorm on the development of Bhopal city in a smarter manner.

Urban Dialogues will offer delegates, the opportunity to debate on finding probable solutions to address various city issues.

Focus areas of ‘Urban Dialogues’ The ‘Urban Dialogues – Reimaging Bhopal’ will comprise of four sessions namely – Inaugural Session, Session 1, Session 2 and Valedictory Session.

‘Bhopal Smart City’ will be the

All India Institute of LocalSelf-Government along with Bhopal Municipal Corporation is organizing ‘Urban Dialogues – Reimagining Bhopal’ on February 12, 2019, at Palash Residency Hotel, TT Nagar, Bhopal. The conference is focused on development of Bhopal into a smart city theme for Session 1. The discussions will begin with pointing out essential requirements for steering smart city development in Bhopal city. Following it will be talks on the efforts that the state government, private entities and people of Bhopal are putting for the improvement in the development of the city. Further discussions will involve contribution of smart strategies by the expert speakers to fulfill the requirements for integral development of Old and New Bhopal. Session 1 will also witness dialogues on significance of smart development, centralization of the command and control of the city, data collection and betterment of civic services delivered by the civic authorities. Session 1 will conclude with the discussion on strategies and policies based on future plans for the betterment of the city. Session 2 of the conference will focus on ‘Linking infrastructure, environment and mobility for sustainable Bhopal.’ The discussion will begin by laying out innovative ideas for balancing of development and environmental requirements.

Bhopal being the ‘City of Lakes’ needs better and smart solutions to keep its water bodies clean and usable, talks will also include experts’ contribution on the preservation of water bodies in Bhopal. Session 2 will further witness exchange of thoughts on innovative strategies towards addressing mobility problems in Bhopal. ‘Urban Dialogues - Reimagining Bhopal’ intends to draw out conclusion and probable solution to anchor a public discourse on creating an aspirational city life for all the citizens.

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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Urban Blog

Urbanization & its Impacts in Imphal

D

Ashem Rahul Singh Scientist, State Climate Change Cell, Directorate of Environment, Manipur

efined as valley, the capital city Imphal is the most urbanized region in Manipur. It stands at an elevation of 790 m above mean sea level (MSL). The Forest Survey of India (FSI), 2017 reports the presence of 16 per cent moderate forest and 38 per cent open degraded forests in Imphal west. Whereas, there is 61 per cent moderate forests and 217 per cent open degraded forests in Imphal east district.

The change is probably due to the conversion of ecological system and natural habitat to urban areas and industrial settlements. Recent felling of tree species on the western part of Kangla (Historical site), Governor Road and Chingmeirong, for widening of roads, roads partition and other linear intrusions is a basic example. Besides this, the capital is bound to attract more populace in the coming days as it is a cultural, commercial and the political center of Manipur. According to the census of 2011, the urban population of Greater Imphal has increased drastically to 0.42 million in comparison to 0.25 million as per the census of 2001. In addition, the number of vehicles registered by the Transport Department, Government of Manipur in 2016 is 0.243 million which is 0.059 million more as compared to the registrations in 2013. It means

22 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

that the capital experienced high growth in the number of personalized vehicles over the last few years with almost every household having at least one vehicle each. Pollution problem is on the rise with the increase in number of both public and private vehicles.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that about seven million people die each year due to air pollution in the world.

Diseases like asthma, bronchitis, lung diseases, heart diseases and respiratory allergies are associated with polluted air. Scientifically, it is well said that sudden climate change is a consequence of urbanization and increasing pollution. Such changes cause an imbalance in the natural environment resulting in the rise of carbon dioxide levels and fall in the oxygen percentage in the atmosphere. Certain areas are likely to experience the adverse effects of climate change, therefore, to control and manage urbanization and activities resulting in polluting the environment is the need of the hour. To curb pollution issues, one of the simple ways is to plant trees in urban areas.

Planting trees is an easy means of controlling the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The special report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests that planting trees sequestered about 1.1 to 1.6 giga tonnes of carbon per year. It is more possible if the trees planted are local species as they can easily adapt to suitable environmental conditions. The local species will curb more carbon than the exotic species. Developing more green cover along the roadsides, wasteland areas or societies, parks and streets under government initiatives with public participation, can be helpful.

Scientific intervention is essential from both Government and local communities so as to develop a climate resilient sustainable system in the urban areas. As a control measure, Manipur Pollution Control Board (MPCB) is dealing with automobile pollution and testing the auto emission in accordance to the pollution control norms. The board is issuing the Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates for less polluting automobiles as per vehicle plying rules. Moreover, the Green India Mission (GIM) under National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) recognized the role of trees and green cover in the urban and periurban areas in the coming decade.

[The views expressed are the author’s own. They do not purport to reflect the views of Urban Update.]

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AIILSG completes first & second batch of Fire training for SMC officials All India Institute of LocalSelf-Government (AIILSG) with Centre for Environment and Disaster Management (CEDM)/National Fire Academy, Vadodara have successfully completed the first and second batch of Fire training for the Fire Marshal Staff of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC).

AIILSG organized a programme for Distribution of Certificate for the ones who have completed their training on January 12, 2019, in presence of respectable dignitaries viz M Thennarasan, (IAS), Municipal Commissioner, Rajiv Agarwal (Retd IAS), Director General, AIILSG, Dr Jairaj Phatak (Retd IAS), Advisor, AIILSG, NV Upadhya, GAS Deputy Commissioner, Hansa Patel, Executive

Advisor, AIILSG, BK Pareekh, Chief Fire Officer of Surat Municipal Corporation, Vivek Buchkey, Director Fire Training, NFA, and SC Parikh, Director (Admn) of AIILSG Surat Centre, and other officers of the Surat Municipal Corporation were present.

During this occasion, Rajiv Agarwal said that the beginning of the Institute goes as far back as 1926 when the need for training in municipal administration was felt.

Since then, AIILSG has played a big role in the impending scarcity of trained personnel in development and administration activities of city administration through more than 30 centers spread across the country.

The Institute conducts various courses like Sanitary Inspector Diploma

M Thennarasan,(IAS), Municipal Commissioner, Surat Municipal Corporation inaugurating the program. Hansa Patel, Executive Advisor, Rajiv Agarwal, (IAS Retd),Director General (AIILSG), Dr Jairaj Phatak, (IAS Retd), Advisor of AIILSG & NV Upadhya, GAS Deputy Municipal Commissioner & BK Pareekh, Chief Fire Officer of Surat Municipal Corporation were also present

Course, Local Self-Government Diploma Course, Firemen Course, Sub-Fire Officers Course, Nursing, BSc Food Science Technology Course, BSc Medical Laboratory Technology Course, Disaster Management etc.

We wish all the candidates who have completed their training with good success and better spirit in their future.

The Director General also requested Executive Advisor, Hansa Patel to try to implement this kind of Fire Marshal Course in all the Municipal Corporations in the state of Gujarat.

Municipal Commissioner also informed the pass out trainees of the Fire Marshal staff, that after completion of their course, they should put their best effort with the additional knowledge they have gathered during the course of training for the betterment of the society by providing timely and quick action as and when such accidents of fire occur.

Now a days, there are lot of fire related mishaps happening in our cities.

Hansa Patel said that Surat is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, at the same time due to its fast development, there are chances of increase in fire related disasters/ accidents during the development work. Hence, the administration should be more vigilant and give more attention towards Fire and Safety sector. As Surat Municipal Corporation is already providing Fireman training course to their Fire Staff, she suggested to provide Subofficers course to the desired staff of the corporation.

The program ended with vote of thanks to all the dignitaries, members and staff of Surat Municipal Corporation and participants from the press and media as well as all the people who have helped for the program to be a grand success.

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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Cover Story Smart Cities

How can our

Smart Cities get

Smarter?

24 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

India having become the fastest growing large economy in the world has the potential to transform the lives of its people as the size of its economy heads towards the $4 trillion mark, likely to be achieved when we celebrate our 75th Independence Day. At the same time, the country, as indeed many other parts of the world, is faced with growing challenges.

Among them is the need to meet the aspirations of rapidly growing urban population in the face of housing shortages, service delivery deficits and environment degradation. We will see these challenges testing the capabilities of the best minds in the world. How can we measure up?

V Vijaykumar Senior Advisor, AIILSG

“W

e share a vision of cities for all, referring to the equal use and enjoyment of cities and human settlements, seeking to promote inclusivity and ensure that all inhabitants, of present and future generations, without discrimination of any kind, are able to inhabit and produce just, safe, healthy, accessible, affordable, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements…….” states the first para of the shared vision of the New Urban Agenda, part of the Quito Declaration adopted at UN HABITAT-III. It is an overarching vision of the global community for our cities and indeed for mankind.

It is a powerful statement of intent and all-encompassing, it is indeed a vision – a statement that is encouraging and inspirational.

Cities occupy just three per cent of the earth’s land area yet account for nearly 80 per cent of economic output and a similar amount of greenhouse gases.

The inevitability of rapid urbanisation is matched only by the growing challenges and the often inadequate, feeble response of policy makers and city managers to the phenomenon.

Whether it is air quality and green spaces, or housing shortages and the proliferation of slums, or the traffic congestion and fragile public mobility, challenges are evident everywhere especially in the developing world.

Smart Cities Mission is intended

as a policy intervention in response to these challenges and an effort to roll-out best practices using modern technologies in our efforts to stem the slide; not just that, but to bring about transformational impacts rather than tinkering for incremental improvements. The number of cities at 100 is satisfactory both in terms of providing adequate visible examples of excellence (lighthouse for other aspiring cities), and also impacting reasonable number of people; however, concepts like the redevelopment over a small area could have limited impact by creating islands of hi-tech living and undermine inclusivity.

Some areas of particular interest call for more focused actions.

Housing

There has been a marked improvement in the number of new ‘affordable housing’ projects. During the last few years; home prices in our cities are beginning to sound more affordable, aided by subsidies under the PMAY and bottom-of-the-pyramid demand.

However some of these projects fail the test as far as ‘livelihood accessibility’ is concerned. Housing in remote suburbs, even if affordable may not be preferred if livelihood options and children’s education are not easily accessible.

These are the same essentials for which migration from rural areas happened in the first place.

An option could be to create a large stock of rental housing where the ownership of the tenement is with

Smart Cities Mission is intended as a policy intervention in response to these challenges and an effort to roll-out best practices using modern technologies in our efforts to stem the slide; not just that, but to bring about transformational impacts rather than tinkering for incremental improvements.

The number of cities at 100 is satisfactory both in terms of providing adequate visible examples of excellence (lighthouse for other aspiring cities), and also impacting reasonable number of people www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

25

a government, quasi-government or such body and is rented out to eligible families. In addition to other benefits, this would not ‘tie-down’ a household to one residence and therefore to the nearest employment opportunity in the city and could even provide mobility across cities. Thus citizens have access to livable housing till the time they can afford to buy one. The example of Singapore’s HDB is often quoted in this regard. The solution in the context of Indian cities could be highly challenging but we surely have it in us to put together some ‘smart’ measures.

Urban mobility and infrastructure

There is unanimity of opinion across the world’s cities that they need to move towards public transport options and shared mobility platforms if they are to address the chaos with respect to congestion, air quality and safety that plague the roads of almost every city on the globe. In our move to add smartness to our streets, efforts to promote electric mobility are indeed welcome and will help air quality issues to a great degree. Creation of battery charging infrastructure seems to be holding back faster roll-out. Therefore, can vehicles be designed for quick replacement of battery where one visits a fuel station and just drops off the drained battery and gets a charged one fitted? Should not be too difficult; and would be smart too. Are we also working too hard on smart parking, which goes to encourage more private car and bike use? Moving people to public transport and shared

mobility must also include discouraging use of personal transport (including its parking) by making it more difficult and expensive. Parking fees on the busiest streets (in the costliest real estate locations) are ridiculously low; it is often free. This will only encourage more private vehicle use. Can we reserve the roads around railway stations and busy markets for use only by public buses and non-motorised transport including pedicabs and cycles? This may not sound ‘hi-tech’ or ‘smart’ but will significantly ease congestion, save time and free-up parking spaces (at Mumbai’s suburban railway stations commuters park two wheelers for the whole day while taking the train to office). Some of these measures could start off being unpopular but citizens would soon see the real benefits and support would come in.

We also need to look at the cost of public transport like buses. As long as using one’s own two-wheeler is cheaper than a bus ride, public transport cannot take off. We must find fiscal means to run buses at low fares by supporting the operator (usually ULB) with the revenue from parking fees, traffic violation fines, and some public transport cess of motor fuels.

How are we locating public infrastructure? Should we be locating these closer to where the demand lies?

Wouldn’t that be smart? For example an airport which is two hours’ drive away from the city’s business district or the Tech-park seems such a waste of resources, however ‘smart’ and wi-fi enabled the airport maybe. Do we need

2000 hectare airports where less than half the area is used for aeronautical purposes? Shouldn’t airports facilitate quick, efficient processes and expedite departure/arrival rather than passengers spending several hours shopping and dining?

Small parks and gardens in residential enclaves can provide much greater value to citizens rather than hitech, showpiece wonders 50 kms away from the city. The latter can serve as tourist attractions, though.

Good governance

Good governance could be as important as ‘smartness’ in our quest for more inclusive and sustainable cities (See Box). Cities need to, over time, create a cadre of well trained and motivated employees who are led by capable leaders. In addition, the governance architecture needs to embrace technology which will bring about transparency in its operations.

Systems which are automated and call for little manual interface, as in the case of income tax e-filing, can inject great amounts of efficiency. Processes like bill payments and reporting of nonfunctional infrastructure by citizens, and issue of NOCs by local bodies have already been transformed by such automation and are a great relief to citizens. Several other aspects like citizen awareness building, skilling, capacity building of ULB staff, climate action and energy efficiency will all go towards building ‘smarter’ cities. Use of technology and hi-tech gadgetry should be combined with greater citizen

There is a certain air of inevitability about the phenomenon of urbanisation. While there was earlier, some despair and helplessness given the relentless march of urbanization, there is now growing realisation of the need to consciously facilitate and support urbanisation and see that its benefits can accrue to larger sections of the population. However, there needs to be proactive action to relieve stresses in the rural countryside, not so much to restrain urbanisation but to improve the quality of life of our rural folk 26 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

NEW INDIA @75 NITI Aayog’s document Strategy for New India @75 makes a comprehensive assessment of the Country and outlines a strategic roadmap for the next few years till the 75th year of India’s Independence in 2022. It covers all areas critical to the achievement of all-round, equitable and sustainable development. It has covered spheres including Doubling Framers Incomes (3 chapters), Sustainable Environment, Higher Education, Skill Development and Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Of special interest to urbanists, it has also devoted two chapters, one titled Smart Cities for Urban Transformation and another under the heading Modernizing City Governance for Urban Transformation.

Therefore it recognizes the role of both, technology driven (smart) measures and governance architecture in bringing about urban transformation.

The first of the two outlines the objectives namely to leverage Smart Cities concept to create jobs and drive growth, significantly improve service delivery, and leverage technology for inclusive, participatory development by 2022-23. It notes the progress in the selected 99 cities stating that as of May 2018, projects worth 4800 crores have been completed and 20,000 crore worth of projects are underway. It makes mention of the operational constraints the Mission is facing including lack of adequately skilled human resources and financing for the projects. It outlines its vision for the future in the areas of Economy (service delivery, mobility, digital transformation), Equity (Inclusive Development), Environment (Resilient Cities) and Engagement (Command and Control Centres).

The other chapter on Modernizing City Governance articulates the objective to transform our cities into economically vibrant and environmentally sustainable habitats which provide equitable access to basic infrastructure, public services and opportunities to all citizens including for democratic participation. It outlines the various urban rejuvenation programmes of the government to achieve this. Among the constraints, here too it notes the lack of a skilled workforce particularly in ULBs, weak financial strength marked by a narrow tax base, broken accounting system and inability to levy and recover taxes and user charges, and multiplicity of public bodies entrusted with overlapping responsibilities. It outlines its vision for better governance by listing out possible actions under Decentralization and Metropolitan Governance, Strengthening ULB Finances, Spatial Planning and Land Titling, Capacity Building of ULBs and Citizen Participation.

participation and good governance to address the challenges our cities face.

What about the rural countryside?

There is a certain air of inevitability about the phenomenon of urbanisation.

While there was earlier, some despair

and helplessness given the relentless march of urbanization, there is now growing realisation of the need to consciously facilitate and support urbanisation and see that its benefits can accrue to larger sections of the population. However, there needs to be proactive action to relieve stresses

in the rural countryside, not so much to restrain urbanisation but to improve the quality of life of our rural folk.

Agriculture currently engages nearly half the workforce while contributing about 18 per cent to GDP. However this statistic does not reflect the nonagricultural rural economy. With the growing rural market for FMCG goods as well as durables like twowheelers and home appliances there is immense potential in rural retail as well as activities like maintenance of white goods and vehicles. Other sectors such as logistics & warehousing (which are receiving greater focus in order to support farmers) and public health (which too is a big national priority) will offer increasing job opportunities for the rural youth.

Within agriculture itself, there is a programme of the government to greatly enhance farm incomes.

Currently, Staple crops (cereals, pulses and oilseeds) occupy 77 per cent of the total gross cropped area but contribute only 41 per cent to the output of the crop sector. High value crops contribute an almost similar amount to total output as staples do, but they occupy only 19 per cent of the GCA. Therefore with increase in GCA for high value crops (alongwith improving consumption patterns of citizens), we can achieve higher output both in terms of quantity and value. In recent years, horticulture production has surpassed food grain production (since last 7 years); lower duration being the main attraction for farmers. In addition, vegetables are grown on smaller land parcels thus appealing to the small farmer.

All these augur well for the rural economy and offer significant possibilities of injecting ‘smartness’ to extract greater benefit for the rural folk.

Clearly then, to create efficient, livable cities, there is need to combine many ingredients; smartness (technology and ideas), good governance (transparency and accountability), equity (fairness to all), and most importantly democracy (listen to the citizen). William Shakespeare’s famous words “What is the city but the people” can guide us in our quest for Cities for All.

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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leaderspeak Managing Smart Cities

SPVs, municipalities need to work in cohesion Indian cities are under transformation and it is fuelled by an array of schemes of Government of India. The role of municipal corporations is changing with the introduction of these initiatives. Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), which are created under Smart Cities Mission, is a new entrant in the urban domain. These SPVs are looking after projects under the Mission for improving urban infrastructure and civic services. Both the agencies, municipal corporations and SPVs, need to synchronise their operational functioning and priorities for better results. This is much more important for the cities which have different officials heading the SPV and the corporation

I

ndia is slowly but consistently moving towards becoming a country of ‘cities and towns’. The exodus of people from rural areas has intensified in recent times.

And, the last census in 2011 suggested the same as the urban population growth, for the first time in the history of independent India, surpassed rural population growth. There are several reasons for this. Agriculture requires far less human resources because of the availability of advanced technological tools. The sector is no longer lucrative for educated youth, barring a few exceptions here and there.

People are moving to cities for a better lifestyle and education. The attraction of cities is increasingly becoming irresistible for the rural populace and the lack of even basic facilities in rural habitats is strengthening the desire of migrating to cities. The trend in small towns and cities is similar and many studies suggest that only a few select metropolitan cities are witnessing the steep increase in population growth.

But most of these cities are not capable of this influx of population and their urban infrastructure is bursting at seams.

The government of the day knows this and that is why it has desired to create 100 Smart Cities in India so that

28 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

the migration of people to cities can be evenly distributed.

Smart Cities Mission that was launched in May 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under implementation in 100 cities. The pace of work or progress of projects under the Mission is uneven. Some cities are on the track while others are still building workplace or offices to kick start the desired projects.

According to Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, as many as 98 special purpose vehicles (SPVs) have so far been constituted to execute projects in cities selected under the Mission. Tenders have been issued for another 1,686 projects worth more than `63,000 crore in various smart cities while 1,200 projects worth more than `38,000 crore are under implementation. The progress in the cities will completely depend on how these cities generate funds for the projects because the cities will have to generate funds for the projects planned as only 1000 crore will only be contributed by the state and central government over a period of five years.

And, it is to be noted that most of the cities have submitted the projects ranging between `1000 cr and `5000 cr. Some cities like Bhopal have been able to manage their finances well. The

Ranjit S Chavan President, AIILSG

cost of the project planned in Bhopal is around `3400 cr and the Smart City SPV has been able to generate over `5000 cr through land monetization.

Smart City may not be a new concept globally. It has various connotations but the concept is undoubtedly relative to local realities. Developing or transforming a European City into a Smart City would bean entirely different exercise from transforming an Indian city into a smart city; dbecause the local realities of both urban habitats are different. In Europe, cities have reached a level where basic civic services are reaching to the last person but cities in India are still struggling to provide basic services to everyone.

Smart Cities in developing countries mean integrating technologically advanced tools into urban eco-system to strengthen existing service delivery or urban infra, while in India, using technology to improve delivery of basic civic services or say making sure that no one is left behind in service delivery is the priority. The objective here is to ensure access to electricity, water supply and sewer connection for everyone.

The role of SPVs in the present scheme of things is diverse yet limited.

The Mission is an effort to rejuvenate urban management operations. It is a

The overarching goals of Smart Cities encompass objectives for sustainable cities. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be an enabler in attaining sustainability and good governance. SPVs in Smart Cities can help municipal corporations in developing a renewed working culture and attitude towards looking at the problem because they are better positioned in terms of availability of resources and trained workforce

Challenges in Implementation of Smart Cities Mission The recently released report by NITI Aayog addresses several issues of national importance for building a New India by the 75th Independence Day. And, this also includes its suggestions for improving implementation strategy of Smart City Mission and underlines the key operational challenges: ♦♦ An institutional mechanism for inter-agency coordination, including special purpose vehicles (SPVs), for effective delivery. ♦♦ A robust spatial plan as an overall framework within which smart city planning and implementation can happen. ♦♦ Smart mechanisms to enhance the voices of the urban poor, slum dwellers, migrants and other underprivileged citizens. ♦♦ A digital master plan or a digital strategy and roadmap. ♦♦ Data-driven decision making for service delivery and resource sustainability. ♦♦ Availability of skilled human resources to handle various functional domains. ♦♦ Financing smart cities and financial sustainability of ULBs. Source: Strategy for New India @75 report released by Niti Aayog.

great opportunity for state governments and central government because they can create a mechanism under which both the agencies can pull up the standards of civic services to a level of a global city.

The overarching goals of Smart Cities encompass objectives for sustainable cities. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be an enabler in attaining sustainability and good governance. SPVs in Smart Cities can help municipal corporations in developing a renewed working culture and attitude towards looking at the problem because they are better positioned in terms of availability of resources and trained workforce.

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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article United Nations Climate Change Conference

Cities & COP24 The 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference was the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), also known as the Katowice Climate Change Conference. It was held between December 2 and 15, 2018 in Katowice, Poland. Attended by around 200 countries including India, the Conference agreed on rules to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement (COP21), which will come into force in 2020, that is to say the rulebook on how governments will measure and report on their emissions-cutting efforts

I

n 1992, countries joined an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as a framework for international cooperation to combat climate change by limiting the rise in average global temperature and the resulting climate change, and coping with impacts that were, by then, inevitable. The UNFCCC member countries adopted a protocol for achieving these objectives in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. There are now 192 Parties, including India, to the Kyoto Protocol. The detailed rules for the implementation of the Protocol were adopted at the COP7 in Marrakesh, Morocco, in 2001. Numerous COP meetings followed, culminating in the historic international climate agreement at the COP21 in Paris in December 2015. Pursuantly, countries publicly outlined what post-2020 climate actions they intended to take under the new international agreement, known as their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The climate actions communicated in these NDCs largely determine whether the world achieves the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement: to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C, to pursue efforts to limit

the increase to 1.5°C, and to achieve net zero emissions in the second half of this century.

India’s commitments

India submitted its NDC to the UNFCCC during COP21 on October 1, 2015, which included, among others, the following tangible targets for itself: ♦♦ To put forward and further propagate a healthy and sustainable way of living based on traditions and values of conservation and moderation. ♦♦ To adopt a climate friendly and a cleaner path than the one followed hitherto by others at corresponding level of economic development. ♦♦ To reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from 2005 level. ♦♦ To achieve about 40 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non- fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030 with the help of transfer of technology and low cost international finance including from Green Climate Fund (GCF). ♦♦ To create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

Sudhir Krishna Former Secretary (UD), GOI

Urbanisation and Climate Change

The mutual influence of urbanization and climate change is very significant.

While cities cover less than 2 per cent of the earth’s surface, they consume 78 per cent of the world’s energy and produce more than 60 per cent of all carbon dioxide and significant amounts of other greenhouse gas emissions, mainly through energy generation, vehicles, industries, and biomass use.

At the same time, cities and towns are highly vulnerable to climate change.

The activities that cities would need to focus on, for facilitating achievement of India’s committed NDCs would cover various sectors such as planned housing, redevelopment of slums, improved availability of household amenities and assets, ambient air, water and waste water management, solid waste management, energy management, disaster risk reduction, green spaces, and transportation.

Planned housing

The significant rise in personal incomes of people has led to concomitant decline in the BPL population. Yet, the availability of climate safe housing for all remains a challenge. The total population of India in Census 2011 was

Cities should aim at 40% area of green space. Assuming availability of 2,500 square metre(m2) gross area for each inhabitant, this would work out to 1,000 m2 green space to be set aside for each inhabitant 30 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

1,210.9 million, congregated into 246.7 million households, of which 167.8 million (68 per cent) households were rural and 78.9 million (32 per cent) urban. As against this, the number of houses being used (occupied) for residential purposes was 166.2 million and 78.5 million, for rural and urban, respectively. The shortfall in residential housing works out to 2.1 million, comprising 1.7 million for rural and 0.4 million for urban.

Out of the 244.64 million houses occupied for residence and residencecum-other uses (rural plus urban), 130.12 million (53.2 per cent) were classified as ‘good habitable condition houses’, followed by 101.44 million (41.5 per cent) as ‘livable condition houses’, while the remaining 13.08 million houses (5.3 per cent) were ‘dilapidated’ habitable condition houses. Thus the shortfall of at least livable condition houses was (13.08+2.1) 15.18 million, as estimated by census 2011. The figure accepted by the Government of India for the housing shortage is 20 million as of 2015.

The building construction activity has been a fundamental for development of infrastructure and services. However, it has also become a major source of energy consumption and carbon emission. The newer options to address these challenges are included inthe green building standards and encompass inter alia solar panelson rooftops, better ventilated structures, solar and electronic paints, and walls with embedded heating system etc.

Slums: Yet another challenge in the housing sector, which defies significant resolution, is the slums. As per Census 2011, out of 4,041 Statutory Towns, Slums were reported from 2,543 Towns (63 per cent), which hosted 13.75 million households. Slum households amounted to 17.4 per cent of the total urban households in Census 2011.

The cities reporting slums increased from 1,743 to 2,613 during 2001-2011, with the number of residents in these slums increasing from 52.4 million to 64.5 million. Rental housing scheme could provide an effective resolution

of the twin problems of vacant houses and proliferation of slums. Rental housing, particularly for the lowincome groups, could also promote technological innovation in terms of low cost housing construction by way of innovative designing, prefabricated structures, etc.

Availability of Household Amenities and Assets

Cities also need to ensure the availability of household amenities and assets to each resident, such as safe (tap) water, electricity, toilet, bathroom, drainage connectivity, kitchen, computer and telephone. This current status, as drawn from Census 2011, is presented as ratio to the total number of households, for rural and urban parts of the country, in the table below.

It is apparent that a large number of households stood deprived of the basic amenities such as electricity,

multiplicity and complexity of the mix of emission sources, such as, industries, automobiles, generator sets, domestic fuel burning, stubble burning, road side dusts, construction activities and landfill sites.

The air quality is measured regularly from several cities under the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP). The air quality data indicates that the sources of each of these pollutants vary, in terms of percent contributions from various sources.

Of the pollutants, PM2.5 exceeds the standards the most, followed by PM10, NO2, CO, and Ozone. The only pollutant to comply the national standards is SO2.

Water

Historically, habitats came up and developed on the shores of water bodies - oceans, rivers and lakes.

However, unplanned urbanization,

Availability of Amenities and Assets in the Households for the Rural and Urban areas, as per Census 2011 Per cent to total Item Total Rural Urban

Households having-

Tap water from treated source 32.0 17.9 62.0 Electricity as main source for lighting 67.2 55.3 92.7 Latrine with water closet 36.4 19.4 72.6 No bathroom 41.6 55.0 13.0 No drainage connectivity 48.9 63.2 18.2 Does not have kitchen 31.5 37.9 18.0 Computer/Laptop – With or Without Internet 9.4 5.1 18.7 Telephone: Mobile and/or Landline 63.2 54.3 82.0 Bicycle 44.8 46.2 41.9 Automobile- Two wheeler 21.0 14.3 35.2 Automobile- Four wheeler 4.7 2.3 9.7 Source: Census 2011

toilet, bathroom, drainage and kitchen, besides the other amenities such as telephone, internet and automobiles.

While considerable improvement is expected to have happened in the last 7 years post-Census 2011, continued efforts are required to make these available to all households.

Air pollution

Air pollution has emerged as a major challenge in Indian cities and the problem becomes more complex due to

driven largely by industrialization, has made many urban stretches of rivers and lakes overstrained and overburdened by industrial waste, sewage and agricultural runoff. Such effluents are overburdening the rivers and lakes with toxic chemicals and wastes, consequently making the surface water resources unusable.

These toxins are, in turn, finding their way into plants, fishes and animals, causing severe ecological toxicity at various trophic levels, besides

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Disaster Risk Reduction

India’s vast population of about 1.2 billion is spread over 7,933 cities and towns, besidesnearly 6.5 lakh villages. These habitats come under variety of geo-climatic zones, making the country prone to all kinds of disasters, including torrential rains, earthquake, cyclones and tsunami.As per the National Disaster Management Institute, more than 58.6 per cent of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of moderate to very high intensity and over 40 million hectares (12per cent)

of its land is prone to floods and river erosionamond several other risks. Cities need to prepare with a comprehensive disaster management plan involving community-based programmes, early warning systems, among others.

grids, and harnessing the solar energy.

Green spaces

Green spaces make the habitats sustainable and enhance the health and well-being of residents. Green spaces are to be complimented with open spaces. Open space is any space without buildings or built-up structures and accessible to public, whereas green space is partly or completely covered with greenery including grass, trees, shrubs or other vegetation. Cities should aim at 40 per cent area of green space. Assuming availability of 2,500 square metre (m2) gross area for each inhabitant, this would work out to 1,000 m2 green space to be set aside for each inhabitant. For a population of 1 lakh, this works out to 10,000 ha

Energy

Energy, primarily electrical energy, is one of the primary drivers of social and economic activities in all cites. street lighting, water and wastewater treatment plants, besides household consumers. There is considerable scope for introducing higher level of efficiencies and environmentfriendliness in the supply of energy.

The various measures that cities could try for this purpose include intelligent street light management systems, smart

Presents Indian cities, which are top generators of solid waste in 2016, based on data reported by the cities themselves 9620

Delhi 19.1 8600

Mumbai 20.0 6000

Kolkata 14.7 5000

Chennai 10.1

4200

Bangalore 10.4 Population in Million

impacting health and well being of the common man. Diminishing availability of surface water sources, coupled with decentralized availability of groundwater, is making the latter increasingly popular a source of water supply. As much as 89 per cent of ground water extracted is used in the irrigation sector, making it the highest category user in the country.

This is followed domestic use (9 per cent) andIndustrial use (2 per cent).

However, as the discharge from the subsoil sources is accelerating with inadequate recharge, the concentration of salts such as fluoride and arsenic in the aquifers is increasing, making such sources unsafe for potable purposes. 60 per cent of all districts in the country have issues of ground water availability, or quality, or both.

Cities need to adopt measures that would promote sustainable availability of clean water for the resident users on 24x7 basis. These would include water quality monitoring, water metering, grey water re-use, and water-saving devices such as dual flushing water closet, and drip irrigation systems, among others measures

4000

Hyderabad 9.1 2500

Ahmedabad 7.5

2300

Pune 5.8

1680

Surat 5.8

1500

Kanpur 3.0 Lacknow 3.3

1200

Nagpur 2.7

1000 1000

Jaipur 3.5 Ludhiana 1.7

850

Indore 2.5

850

Coimbatore 2.6

850

Agra 2.0

790

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

Tonnes per day

Top generators of solid waste in 2016

Diminishing availability of surface water sources, coupled with decentralized availability of groundwater, is making the latter increasingly popular a source of water supply. As much as 89 per cent of ground water extracted is used in the irrigation sector, making it the highest category user in the country. This is followed by domestic use(9 per cent) andIndustrial use (2 per cent) 32 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

of green space and would facilitate achievement towards NDC target of creating additional sink of 2.5-3.0 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030. The green space plan for a city should also make ample provisions for the ‘blue spaces’ that is, the water bodies.

Solid Waste Management

Rapidly growing, but often unplanned, urbanization, changing lifestyles and lack of concern for the environment have resulted in increased volumes and changing composition of municipal solid waste.

The volume of wasteis projected to double from 64-72 million tonnes at present to 125 million tonnes by 2031.

Untreated waste, being a mixture of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste, from Indian cities lies for months and years at dumpsites, contributing to global warming by Green House Gas emissions. The Report of the Task Force of the Planning Commission (2014) places the biodegradable component of Composition of Municipal Solid Waste in India (per cent of total) (Task Force on Waste to Energy, Planning Commission, 2014)

32 51

7 10

Other (Textile, glass, metal, drain silt, street sweeping, inert)

Paper

Plastic

Biodegradable

the total municipal solid waste in India other waste; promoting multi-modal at 51 per cent, which seems to be an transportation system; smart vehicle parking systems; and efficient public underestimate.

India has scientifically engineered bicycle systems for cities. landfills only for hazardous waste.

Other than that, most Indian cities Conclusion practice open dumping at sites that Hundreds of millions of people in were originally allocated for developing urban areas across the world will be sanitary landfills. The major challenge affected by rising sea levels, increased in solid waste management today, precipitation, inland floods, more however, goes beyond sanitary landfills. frequent and stronger cyclones and Recycling and reuse of the waste storms, and periods of more extreme is the first and foremost necessity. heat and cold. In addition, most Recycling of waste itself can cause of the vital economic and social environmental pollution and therefore, infrastructure, government facilities, the technological interventions need to and assets are located in cities. The most affected populations are the urban address this challenge as well.

Cities should adopt the newer poor who live in vulnerable locations.

Keeping in sharp focus these risks, and better technology options for sustainable management of solid cities will have to address the climate waste. Some examples are:waste challenge. This would include defining paper recycling; composting and relevant city policies and action plans; vermiculture; plastic waste recycling; regulations on urban planning and Other (Textile, glass, metal, drain silt, street sweeping, inert) environment to adjust to manage and e-waste management. climate change; swift response to climate disasters backed with adequate Transportation Paper Transport sector is one of the major managerial capacity and resources; contributors for GHG, particularly creation of public awareness on climate Plastic CO2, emissions. Of the two major fuels change-induced hazard mitigation. for the Biodegradable automobiles, namely, petrol and Additionally, cities would also need diesel, it is the diesel that consumes the to focus on the social sectors, to major share of fuel, being almost 70 ensure sustainability of the outcomes. per cent, while petrol consumes about When properly planned, capacitated, 30 per cent. Cities need to undertake and managed through appropriate integrated planning for the governance structures, cities can transportation sector with the objective not only facilitate attainment of the of reducing the adverse climate impact COP24 commitments, but would also from the transport sector. These include bring about sustainable, inclusive and adoption of alternate technologies for equitable growth for their residents as laying of roads utilizing plastics and well as for the country.

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Article Urban Development

Smart Cities of Maharashtra

Vidya Kumar Senior Journalist, Mumbai

O

ut of the 100 smart cities across the country, Maharashtra accounts for seven. Pune and Solapur were selected in the first round while in the second round Thane, Nashik, Nagpur and Aurangabad were selected and in round three, Pimpri-Chinchwad found place.

Under the Smart city mission, the

34 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

cities take up area specific development like betterment of roads, rejuvenation of water bodies, cycle tracks, walking paths, smart classrooms, skill development centers, upgradation of health facilities, and pan-city projects like integrated command and control center are also taken up.

Let’s first look at the cities of Pune and Solapur whose names figured in the list of Smart cities first along with 18 others across the country that were announced in January 2016.

In terms of utilisation of money that has been allocated to them for the construction of smart city, Pune is 11th and Solapur is 15th. While Pune has utilised approximately 42.50 per cent of the amount allotted to it, Solapur has utilised only 14.20 per cent till 2018 end. Both these cities, Pune and Solapur should have received `400 crore in the last four years from the Central government for implementing the projects but have received only 196

crores in the first two years and nothing thereafter.

The Pune smart city project has a website while Solapur is yet to create one. In Pune more than 35 lakh inputs were received from the citizens across the city that gave direction to the project managers on what is it that the people expected. However, in spite of spending 83.21 crore of the 196 crores allotted to Pune, most of its projects according to its own website are “Current Status - The project is under concept development stage”; be it the idea of E-buses or Airport Express Service. Under the smart street lighting project approximately 57000 LED lights have been installed along with more than 300 SCADA based panels and a few such other projects have been executed.

It’s a similar situation in Solapur as well where under this project, Solapur City Development Corporation Limited (SCDCL) was set up which

installed LED street lights, e-toilets for approximately five lakh pilgrims visiting the Siddheshwar temple and took up a dozen more such projects and a few other small projects. However, no major infrastructure project was undertaken in Solapur. The Solapur Municipal Commissioner believes that with these small projects they have been able to bring in big changes in the lives of citizens. Sewage, water system and over `100-crore road projects are pending but the administration says that they were delayed as tenders put out by the administration did not elicit good response. However the administration promises to speed up the work now.

Thane smart city project has drawn up projects worth `5404 under the smart city project. The name given to the Special Purpose Vehicle is ‘Thane Smart City Limited’ (TSCL).The first board meeting of the TSCL was convened within 30 days of incorporation of the SPV, i.e. on Thursday the November 17, 2016. Following which, the second meeting of the board of directors of TSCL was held on Friday the March 17, 2017. Under the Smart City programme a public-private partnership, the city launched the “ilovecycling” project in August 2017 and a few other projects like the installation of wi-fi gained momentum but other projects like the construction of promenades, jogging tracks, walkways, playgrounds, cycle tracks, food courts and gymnasium on water fronts were halted last year due to petitions being filed against the irregularities involved. However in Thane, like other cities there have been many tenders that have been put out.

In Nashik, tenders for LED lightings to be installed under area based development along with other projects like the development of bicycle stands or the development of Nehru Garden, waste management etc. have been issued. Tenders for a few projects were issued; however beyond that the major projects that are being taken up by the authorities are facing much resistance from the people. After farmers from

Makhmalabad protested against the survey of greenfield projects under Smart City Mission in Panchavati area, the local corporator has asked for cancellation of the project. A total of 754 acres in Makhmalabad and Nashik areas would be developed under the town planning scheme as per the development plan. Building of a 1.1 kilometer long road as a pilot project was started in the heart of the city in June 2018, and the first phase of this will get completed this month. During this work, the co-ordination between different authorities which should have been in place before the project started was absent. This left many people troubled because during digging, the underground electricity cables were damaged. This Smart Road includes one-metre wide cycle tracks on both sides, installation of CCTVs, benches for people, etc. Seven locations across Nashik have been selected for kicking off the first phase of smart parking zones. The authorities have planned to start it in January-end. Six of these locations are on-road parking while one is off-road parking but the problem ahead is that there are illegal shanties in these places so it certainly will not be easy for the authorities.

Nagpur is the home town of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister for Water Resources, Road Transport and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari.

Thus this is one city which has been steering right ahead in the Smart City project. Both these BJP leaders are set to perform bhoomipuja for a smart city project in February beginning. Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) had decided to convert an area of 1,743 acres of Pardi, Bharatwada, Bhandewali and Punapur in East Nagpur into Smart City. NMC’s SPV - Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Limited (NSSCDCL) is executing this project. Apart from this, 3000 affordable housing units for the project affected and the poor has also been planned and work on this is slated to begin soon. Nagpur promises to be 20 times greener when it is smart.

Aurangabad is slated to be developed

much like Nagpur. It is another city run by the BJP - Shiv Sena alliance.

Works on smart roads have been prioritised here and there have been many claims that Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited (ASCDC) has started a large number of works. However activists here decry tall claims and say that the SPV has missed almost all deadlines that had been set for its many projects. Of the 196 crores sanctioned under smart city projects, Aurangabad is lagging behind in its usage.

Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation near Pune is the newest entrant in the Smart City project in Maharashtra; however it has tendered out many works and has awarded many. And like others, it too started with projects like the implementation of smart elements such as Wi-Fi, smart kiosks and variable message displays across the city. A pilot project of e-classrooms is planned while construction of smart roads in Pimple Saudagar and Pimple Gurav will commence from March this year. The roads will comprise pedestrian pathways, bicycle paths, storm water drainage lines, road markings, LED street lights, traffic signals, smart toilets, street furniture, street landscaping and beautification works. The project will continue for 24 months and the estimated cost is `364 crore among other plans.

In 2015, Maharashtra government had selected Mumbai to be part of this bouquet of smart cities. However the city where people land up with a million dreams from across the country was unceremoniously dropped because of some differences between the alliance partners Shiv Sena which has control over the city since long, and the BJP. On the other hand cities like Amravati, have spent huge amounts trying to make detailed project report (DPR) so that they could be selected for the smart city project but have not made it to the list of top 100.

[The views expressed are the author’s own. They do not purport to reflect the views of Urban Update.]

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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article Leh Redevelopment

Transformation In Leh

Is it in the desired direction?

Urbanisation has its own perks but it can turn out to be a bane for the citizens if not done in the right direction. Shift from dry toilets to flush toilets is an increasing trend in Leh city but due to lack of proper sewage system, the streams as well as the ground water are getting contaminated

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ransformation in Leh, the capital city of Ladakh, is evidently happening.

The town has a census population of over 20,000, but the officials put the figure near 40,000. The migrant workers are not accounted for. Similarly, 10,000 personnel of the Indian army, which utilise all the resources of the region forces the civic authorities to plan for a population of 50,000.

The city is metamorphosising fast.

It gets more than 300,000 tourists in a year. These are both foreign and Indian tourists and the town is shaped according to their needs and comforts.

The town has modern café, German bakery, motor cycle outlets, giant guzzlers and what not; all this is all over the city.

There are immense challenges that the city faces from traffic congestion and shift from agriculture to tourism.

One can easily see the agricultural fields getting converted into guest house and hotels; a few of which offering central heating facility remain open throughout the year (as the night temperature dips to minus 30 degrees Celsius).

The challenges of drainage, sanitation, water; all of them confront the civic authorities for solutions which are sustainable and implementable. The youth are shifting from villages to the city where they work as tourist agents.

They leave their parents behind who are taken care by sprouting palliative and geriatric care initiatives by a large number of CBOs (community based organisations).

36 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

The irreversible shift in toilets?

In this transformation there is another important shift taking place which seems to be irreversible. This is regarding a particular habit which is getting eroded and eventually may be lost in the future. It pertains to the paradigm shift from traditional ‘dry toilets’ to the modern flush toilets.

Why is it so? Is it just because of the fact that there is a large number of tourists who are not comfortable with the old dry toilets or because the native communities have shifted to the ‘flush’ ones? The Jammu and Kashmir government utilising funds under Urban Infrastructure Development

Tikender Singh Panwar Former Deputy Mayor Shimla (supervising the Leh vision 2030)

Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) through itsPublic Health Engineering (PHE) department has invested nearly `100 crore for laying sewerage pipes in the city and connecting it to a sewage treatment plant (STP) which may become operational in a year from now.

There is a famous saying, “The change in material production changes the social productive relations as well.”

So is true for the shift that the material production brings in social behaviour.

Dry toilets are drying up and the flush toilets are taking its space. Undoubtedly this mounts severe pressure on the water consumption of the city. But the change looks inevitable. Let us examine

the three important reasons for that: ♦♦ The dry toilets were excellent and were used by the community which also served as human manure for the agriculturalfields.

This consumed little water and according to estimates even 40 litres per capita per day could suffice for an individual. Now with the shift from agriculture to tourism and reduction in agriculture in the city the dry toilets are hardly seen as ‘manure production’ for the fields.

This has spiked the water usage to almost double thus increasing pressure on the authorities (PHE) to provide required quantity of water. Despite that the shift seems irreversible as the usage of wet toilets is getting de-linked from the production base of agriculture in the city. ♦♦ The second major reason is that

the Ladakhi people living in Leh town earn their livelihood mainly from tourism. Unlike in the past the major labour activity of agriculture is virtually vanishing.

This has affected the entire activity of clearing the faecal material and dumping it in the fields. This is now considered something ‘bad’ by the younger generation of the region who prefer to open business outlets and work as tourist agents or guides. In such a scenario the native families are more than keen to get rid of the dry toilets as the present form of human labour is divorced from its operations. ♦♦ The third major reason for discontinuing the dry toilets is linked to the sewage connection which every household will be forced to accept. The design of the sewage treatment plant is for

It is a strange and unpleasant reality that in the mountains instead of surface water the city meets more than 50 per cent demand through ground water and that too is contaminated 3 million litres per day. It means that a minimum of 30 lakh litres of water and sewage must reach the STP to ensure that it functions to its optimum capacity. The utility will force every household and the hotel industry to link their toilets to the main sewage line. It is only through this linkage that the STP will be able to function normally.

Already there is widespread discussion in the local government and administrative circles about how the linkage of the sewage system must be ensured. For them this utility is more like a business model where though the capital has been invested by the government, the operation costs will be borne by the local residents. Hence, the entire discourse in the city is for linking the sewage connection.

Transformations can take the city and

its people both towards better living as well as for surmounting challenges which may even be unforeseen. It looks like the unbridled pace at which the model of wet toilets is followed in the hill city of Leh could be disastrous.

Already results of this shift are being witnessed. During the dry toilet usage period the stream of water flowing in the town was used for drinking purposes. Now with majority wet toilets in the city, the stream is contaminated with mixture of faecal matter from the septic tanks of individuals and hotels.

Not just the surface water has become unconsumable but even the ground water which is at a shallow level has got badly contaminated. There are over 3000 borewells both in the private and public domain. Almost 90 per cent of the borewells have tested negative for human consumption. It is a strange and unpleasant reality that in the mountains instead of surface water the city meets more than 50 per cent of its demand through ground water and that too is contaminated.

The city has to revisit its sanitation plan which should focus on both the dry and wet toilets. It is quite agreeable that the design of the dry toilets requires change which can easily be done to adapt to the modern-day requirement.

For example, the design of the commode can be changed to suit both tourists and the natives. The mixing of sand can be adjusted in the design of the house which can have a mechanical lever attached so that it is easily operated. This is quite possible and the city civic administration and the people must not rule out the possibility of the usage of dry toilets. The transformation in Leh which has to happen must be for the enhancement of liveability of its citizens and not become victims of the trajectory of urbanisation being witnessed in the country. Liveable Leh, will be where once again the stream water flowing in the city can be used for human consumption rather than completely relying on ground water.

[The views expressed are the author’s own. They do not purport to reflect the views of Urban Update.]

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

37

Article Climate Change

Climate’s ‘time bomb’ for world’s groundwater has some serious lessons for Indian cities

Ranjan K Panda Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network, India

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xtreme weather events such as droughts and heavy precipitation days are two of the major impacts of global warming.

These events, whose frequency and intensities are increasing by the years,

38 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

may make groundwater replenishment rate too slow in dry areas, a recent study published in Nature Climate Change says. According to this study led by Dr Mark Cuthbert from Cardiff University UK, it could take more than a century – in more than half of the world’s groundwater systems – to completely respond to environmental changes.

This is being described as a climate ‘time bomb’ as the slow recharge will make it difficult for groundwater reserves to replenish in the natural timeline and may affect billions of people. It is estimated that more than two billion people across the world rely on groundwater for drinking and

irrigation purposes. Groundwater is the largest usable source of freshwater on the planet but is more vulnerable to climate change than surface water, confirms this study. According to the lead researcher, groundwater systems take a lot longer to respond to climate change than surface water, with only half of the world’s groundwater flows responding fully within ‘human’ time scales of 100 years.

Climate science has already warned that changes in rainfall intensity are very significant for groundwater.

According to this study it’s not just the overall amount of rainfall that is important; it is also how intense the

rainfall is. The groundwater resources are predominantly recharged by rainfall. At the same time, water exits or discharged from groundwater resources into lakes, streams and oceans to maintain an overall balance.

Evidences show that in arid areas, the recharge rate will be very slow under climate change conditions. In arid areas, this research found, groundwater reserves took much longer – in some cases thousands of years – to respond to changes in climate when compared to those in humid areas of the world.

Giving example of the Sahara, the lead researcher maintained that portions of the groundwater underneath this region are still responding to climate change from ten thousand years ago when it was much wetter there. This research, as claimed by the team, has shown one of the “hidden” impacts of climate change and has called for unprecedented actions to ensure that

(1 degree Celsius) rise of ocean surface temperatures. The researchers for this study claim that their data provide the first quantitative estimate of how much the severe storms are going to increase in warmer oceans, at least for the tropical oceans.

A study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar claims to have established the link between anthropogenic emissions and rising trend in extreme rainfall events in India. The study finds out that such extreme events are on the rise due to anthropogenic warming, and this trend is likely to become more prominent by the mid-century, especially in southern and central India.

This study says extreme rainfall events are on the rise in India and attributes the trend to man-made emissions – what scientists call anthropogenic warming. Not just this, the trend is likely to become more prominent by

waned that 21 Indian cities are expected to run out of groundwater just by next year i.e. 2020. This will affect at least 100 million people. The report also warned that critical groundwater resources that account for 40 per cent of India’s water supply are being depleted at unsustainable rates.

Our cities are becoming synonymous to concrete jungles.

They are developing at the cost of natural spaces squeezing thereby the chance of rainfall penetration into the ground reserves. The natural sponges – in the form of surface water bodies, green vegetation cover and rivers, streams etc – are vanishing fast from our cityscapes. If they are serious about the scientific studies in discussion here and many more researches that have already established in clear terms that increased dry days and growing intensity of extreme rainfall days will make groundwater recharge

Climate science has already warned that changes in rainfall intensity are very significant for groundwater. AS PER study it’s not just the overall amount of rainfall that is important; it is also how intense the rainfall is. The groundwater resources are predominantly recharged by rainfall the future generations are not impacted by the crisis.

Extreme rainfall events and droughts go hand in hand

A just concluded study by NASA warns that warming of the tropical oceans due to climate change could lead to a substantial increase in the frequency of extreme rain storms by the end of the century. This research found extreme storms – those producing at least 0.12 inches (3 millimetres) of rain per hour over a 16-mile (25-kilometer) area – formed when the sea surface temperature was higher than about 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius). They also found that, based on the data, 21 percent more storms form for every 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit

mid-century, particularly in southern and central India. Another study finds out that there has been a three-fold increase in widespread heavy rainfall events in the 66-year period between 1950 and 2015. Even though there has been a general weakening of monsoon circulation, there has been a 10 to 30 percent increase in rainfall events over the region where more than 150 mm rainfall is registered in a day.

Indian cities at severe risk, need to act fast

India is already witnessing an increase in both extreme precipitation events as well as droughts. The disturbed rainfall pattern across the nation makes many areas vulnerable to low groundwater recharge. A NITI Aayog report has

further slow if we prevent the rainfall from percolating down the groundwater resources.

Our cities must act fast and move towards an integrated approach of development that makes urban forestry and water harvesting, through natural ecosystem based systems, an integral part. We need to free the top soil from as much concrete as we can and replace the same with natural green and blue infrastructure. This will not only help our cities fight the severe water crisis they are already in, but also help them move towards water security in future as climate change impacts grow.

[The views expressed are the author’s own. They do not purport to reflect the views of Urban Update.]

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

39

article Migration

Migration in Asia Where is everybody going?

Bart Edes Representative of North America Office, Asian Development Bank

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he US government recently endured a month-long partial shutdown due to a partisan dispute over funding to build a wall on the country’s southern border with Mexico. While those on both sides of the issue were digging in their heels, I got to thinking about migration trends in Asia.

According to the most recent edition of Asian Development Bank’s (ADB’s) Asian Economic Integration Report, Asia remains the world’s largest continental source of international migrants. Indeed, one in three migrants worldwide comes from the region.

The number of Asian migrants has grown steadily to about 87 million, and the report notes that leading source countries of migrants to Asia are the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with 5.2 million, the Russian Federation (3.8 million), and Bangladesh (3.7 million).

Primary drivers for the movement of such large numbers of people include conflict and the desire for better educational and economic opportunities.

Another emerging driver of migration that has received more attention of late is climate change, the subject of a landmark ADB study. The majority

40 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

of Asian migrants are semi- and lowskilled workers such as maids, caregivers and manual labourers, including those working on construction sites. Skilled Asian migrants tend to move to advanced industrial economies outside the region.

But as Asian countries become more prosperous and host increasingly important economic centers, one can imagine that more skilled Asian migrants will stay closer to home in future years.

There are various developments opening the door to greater intra-regional migration. For example, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) envisions the free flow of skilled labour among the ten members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

This goal is slowly being realized through the granting of visas and work permits, and negotiation of mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs) in areas such as engineering, nursing, architecture, medicine, dentistry, and tourism.

However, an ADB study of skills mobility in the AEC concluded that several technical and political barriers at national and regional levels impede professionals from moving and practicing their profession in other ASEAN countries. Overcoming these

impediments could yield real benefits.

Mita Adhisti, an economist calculated that ASEAN’s overall economic growth could increase 7.1 per cent by 2025 if member countries took steps to support migration, such as improving labour market information, providing language and skill training, simplifying administrative requirements, and expanding MRAs to semi-skilled workers.

Demographically-driven labour shortages in high-income economies are creating new opportunities for migrants from developing countries in the region.

Australia’s Pacific Labour Scheme kicked off in July 2018 to allow citizens of Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu to take up low and semi-skilled work opportunities in rural and regional Australia for up to three years. The scheme will be expanded to more Pacific island countries as Australia hopes to fill labour gaps in towns and on farms, and in the process stimulate greater economic activity away from the major coastal population centers.

Beginning in 2019, Japan plans to begin issuing more than a quarter-million fiveyear visas for workers in 14 sectors that are experiencing serious labor shortages, including caregiving, construction, agriculture, and shipbuilding. A separate new visa category for high-skilled workers will grant permission for longterm stays, and the right to bring families into the country. Australia and Japan are not the only countries in the region that will require more workers. The Economist has reported that countries in East Asia will have to import 275 million people between the ages of 15 and 64 by 2030 to keep the share of the population at working age steady.

Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, and China will need workers. Countries with a surplus of workers include Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines.

Will Asia’s increasing trend towards regional integration in areas such as trade, equity, and direct investment extend further into the continent’s labour markets? Time will soon tell.

(The article was first published as ADB blog.)

article Mobility

Putting people at the heart of urban transport infrastructure planning Susan Lim Senior Transport Specialist, East Asia Department Alessandra Heinemann Social Development Specialist, East Asia Regional Department

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isiting Gui’an, the capital of Guizhou province in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), makes you feel like you’ve stepped into a time-lapse film about structural transformation.

Farming villages are giving way to high rises. Hundreds of tech firms—including giants like Alibaba—have set up shop in recent years, drawing in talent from across the country. Former farmers are retraining to take up jobs in the services sector. Historically among the poorest provinces in the PRC, Guizhou has the ambition to become the country’s data valley by 2020. The contrast between old and new is starkest in Gui’an New District, which is projected to become the heart of Guizhou’s tech hub. ADB is helping the government develop an intelligent transport system (ITS) and sustainable transport infrastructure to make public transport enticing for all, averting the fate of many cities that are choking in traffic.

Our challenge was to design a transport system that is inclusive of the whole spectrum of users – from tech-savvy digital natives to elderly people with

limited mobility and IT literacy.

We used human-centered design to better understand people’s mobility needs.

Human-centered design (sometimes also called design thinking) is a tried and tested innovation methodology that grew out of Silicon Valley. It has inspired now ubiquitous products such as the mouse, originally designed for Apple in 1980.

Human-centered design puts an emphasis on understanding user needs – both explicit and latent. Insights from conversations with users become the basis for exploring innovation opportunities.

For example, design researchers observed that people tend to round up decimals when writing cheques to make addition easier. This inspired a service that rounds up debit card purchases to the nearest dollar, and then transfers the difference into a savings account.

Promising ideas are brought to life as quick-and-dirty prototypes, which are then tested and refined. Development practitioners will recognize participatory principles in the design thinking toolbox, repackaged into an agile problem-solving process. To understand user needs, we talked to a variety of people in Gui’an about how and what transport they used,

which sparked dozens of ideas for small tweaks that could make public transport more user-friendly for everyone. We will experiment with fold-away seating for toddlers on buses, or an app that helps elderly people navigate the city safely by notifying family members when planned journeys go off-track.

Perhaps most importantly, our conversations revealed that physical mobility is closely bound up with social and economic mobility in people’s minds.

While the breakneck pace of change has unleashed a lot of optimism in Gui’an, there is also concern about the digital divide and the future of work.

Digital services provide unparalleled convenience for most people, but risk excluding those with low levels of IT literacy. At the same time there is a concern about how automation and artificial intelligence will affect wages and jobs, especially for people with low levels of education.

To help tackle these challenges, the project will run a series of “inclusion hackathons,” events where computer programmers and other experts come together to develop apps and services focused on social inclusion and mobility, drawing on data from the ITS. The project will also leverage the ITS to organize coding camps for school aged girls during their summer break. We hope this will motivate girls to pursue STEM education and careers, contributing to closing the digital gender gap.

We are eager to see how the project evolves as the collaboration with our partners in Gui’an continues. So far, our experiment with design thinking has been successful about its potential to put people’s needs first for infrastructure development, and to help us work more collaboratively across sectors.

(The article was first published as ADB blog.)

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

41

article Mayors Forum

Ahmedabad mayor elected as President of Gujarat Mayors Forum Gujarat Mayors’ Forum, an initiative of All India Institute of Local Self-Government, strives to empower the elected representatives and municipal officials so that the corporations can improve service delivery mechanism and hence, improve the quality of life of their citizens Team Urban Update

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he first meeting of Gujarat Mayors’ Forum was held recently at All India Institute of Local SelfGovernment, Khanpur, Ahmedabad under the chairmanship of R S Chavan, AIILSG President. Bijalben Patel, Hon’ble Mayor, Ahmedabad; Binaben Acharya, Hon’ble Mayor, Rajkot and Adhyashaktiben Majmudar, Mayor, Junagadh attended the meeting.

Ahmedabad Mayor was elected as the Chairman of the Forum till the next meeting. During the meeting, it was felt that more awareness is required amongst the Mayors as well as elected representatives, and therefore, there is a need of organising seminars/conferences, training programmes and research work so as to derive long term benefits.

Gujarat Mayors’ Forum will work

42 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

to make its presence felt amongst all concerned officials related with urban affairs and urban development in the coming days. It will be a collective effort to rationalise the system and to update the procedures with the intent of making these people friendly, sustainable and environment friendly by accommodating the views and ideas of the people through their participation in the policy making and its implementation in an effective and efficient manner.

Objective

The purpose of such a forum is to discuss, deliberate and evolve new ideas amongst themselves and make strong representation to the competent authorities of State and Central Governments to realise their objectives by remaining within the constitutional limits, but expediting important projects for the overall progress of the cities and providing better amenities

to the citizens in a satisfactory manner.

It is also suggested to make suitable provisions for endowing sufficient powers to the Mayors for taking policy and administrative decisions, including financial powers.

All the Mayors of eight Municipal Corporations of Gujarat are the members. The President of AIILSG who is the Secretary General and Adviser has been entrusted with the responsibility to coordinate the meetings. The Mayor of the hosting city which convenes the meeting shall be elected as the Chairperson of the Forum till the period of the next meeting in a different city from among the eight cities as per the pre-fixed schedule. The hosting city will have the opportunity of gaining the valuable information shared by the other cities and support to make their representations with the competent State Government authorities. It is the responsibility of the Institute to facilitate

the meetings and assist all the Municipal Corporations to take up the issues with various authorities from time to time and to provide administrative and logistic support, if required.

As a matter of fact, there is an extreme need of creating a sense of discipline amongst the civic staff by injecting knowledge with regard to local governance, urban management, urban development etc. Urban governance includes time bound responses to the citizens’ queries, timely decision making, addressing various complaints with regard to basic amenities and initiating new projects as per the demands and expectations of the citizens.

Urban Local Bodies are now under pressure from the people to mend their ways and to do something concrete for the people. The expectations of the citizens are increasing in line with income, development of science and technology as well as the changing way of life. Local Governments are required to provide basic amenities to the citizens and citizens pay taxes against various heads for these services. However, the quality of services extended to the people at large is short of expectations and the responses by the authorities to the citizens’ grievances are not satisfactory.

Therefore, people are compelled to approach the elected representatives to redress their grievances. Roads, water supply, street lights, drainage, sanitation, healthcare, education, slum clearance and urban housing, etc. are the major activities being carried out by local bodies. The recent initiatives taken by the State Governments as well as Central Government for making smart cities and other urban issues such as affordable housing, promotion of healthcare for the weaker sections and quality education to be provided in civic schools, building quality roads and better drainage system are discussed in various forums.

One key issue faced by major civic bodies is the migration of people for employment, livelihood, education facilities and better lifestyle. Although migration takes place to meet the aspirations of the people, it puts pressure on the existing urban infrastructure

18th State Mayors’ Conference 2018 Maharashtra: The 18th State Mayor’s Conference was organized by Nagpur Municipal Corporation on October 27, 2018, in Nagpur at Vasntrao Naik Agricultural Research Centre (Vanamati). Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road, Transport & Highways and Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra inaugurated the Mayors’ Conference. Conference was organized on the demand of Nanda Jickhar, Mayor of Nagpur, who is also the Vice President of Maharashtra’s Mayor Council. Mayors from all over the state participated in the conference. On the occasion ‘Saarthi’ a book written by Ranjit Chavan, President, All India Institute of Local-Self Government and Laxmanrao Latke was unveiled. to provide the basic amenities to the incoming population.

However, it is the duty of the civic bodies to provide them better facilities and plan out affordable housing schemes, persuade them to send their children to school, and carryout sanitation work, etc. In these efforts, civic bodies face financial constraints, lack of expertise and manpower shortage. While the main sources of income for them are civic taxes, these are not enough to take up large scale projects like garbage collection, its segregation, treatment of sewage water, beautification of the city with modern street lights, construction of better roads, and provision of entertainment facilities to the urban dwellers.

The development works undertaken by the civic administration from time to time are not implemented within the time limit and the project cost increases due to such delay. The citizens suffer due to non-availability of the services and are forced to pay revised higher taxes decided annually by the civic bodies. Such an atmosphere creates mistrust between the people, the elected representatives and the administrative staff which needs to be resolved through e-governance and by making the systems more transparent and accountable.

Significance of mayors’ role

The Mayor is elected by the majority party in the civic body and is supposed to guide the administrative wing; however quite often the effort is in vain due to the rigid administrative procedures and resource constraints of the civic body. As a leader and head of the elected body, the Mayor should have the power to allocate

the funds for priority areas and settle the outstanding major issues on war footing. However, his power is limited and he can only suggest the points to the administrative wing for suitable action.

The strained relations between the elected representative and administrative wings result in delayed implementation of projects. Quite often civic councillors have to hear the grievances of the people in their respective areas and nonresponsive or legal issues highlighted by the administrators on the other hand. Therefore, a mechanism is needed to sort out such issues with the involvement of people and taking up high-cost and important projects on PPP (Public Private Partnership) basis. Many issues have to be sorted out by Urban Development Ministry and Finance Ministry to provide funds for priority areas and accomplishing the task timely. To achieve this, there has to be a mechanism and committee comprising Mayors, Commissioners and Urban Development Ministry officials to study the matter and find out amicable solutions and initiate new projects with the involvement of people.

Therefore, the Mayor’s position has to be given due weightage with powers to allocate finance in a transparent and accountable manner, so that the basic amenities are provided and ambitious projects are completed in time. Though there are demands and representations by many civic bodies to empower the Mayors, a concrete decision is yet to be taken by the State Governments in consultation with Urban Development Ministry and Finance Ministry in this regard.

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

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Book Review Good Reads

A crisis in air, well explained!

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If you open any newspaper these days, especially of a northern Indian city, you will invariably find columns and columns written on ‘bad’, ‘worse’, ‘very poor’ air quality and its effect on an individual’s health and so on. The reasons Indian citizens are forced to inhalethe ‘poison’ are very many but practical and lasting solutions are yet to be found.However, people have no option of leaving one city (Delhi) and settling elsewhere.

The book under review, perhaps a first comprehensive effort to put together everything that people would like to know about the increasing pollution in India, is incidentally not written by an established environmentalist or a scientist well-versed with climate changes that are the off shoot of the madding urbanisation. And that gives the author an advantage of writing on the topic without any bias or baggage.

Abhilash Khandekar Sr Journalist

While we say Delhi is worst pollutedwhich it is-the book not only focuses on the national capital but explains the meteorological and geographical features of the northern Indian plains to put before the reader the severity of the smog crisis. As many as 36 cities are under worst air quality situation in India and more may be added if multilayered efforts are not made by the government.

“In India’s northern plains, on which Delhi lies, the air pollution crisis reaches a crescendo every winter when pollutants combine with suspended water droplets in the lower atmosphere to become a thick blanket of deathly smog. This blanket blocks out the sun, bringing with it appallingly low visibility, unbreathable air and silent death. This soup of dangerous mixtures slowly surrounds us without warning, making victims of the most vulnerable amongst us. It is this deadly combination

Book The Great Smog of India Author Siddharth Singh Publisher Penguin Pages 262 Price Rs 499/Recommendation Buy for personal library

44 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

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of anthropogenic pollutants and natural fog in India’s northern plains between October and January that goes on to become the Great Smog of India”, the author explains in the chapter titled ‘Meteorological Misfortune ‘.

The states critically impacted by the smog include Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. Singh bemoans the fact that “we have largely treated air pollution as a local issue rather than a national or even international one.

Expecting local leaders and chief ministers to solve the problem is akin to expecting the captain of a small boat to clean the water around the boat, when in fact the whole lake is filthy”, he says.

The author says in his opening remarks that he is not an environmentalist, nor a researcher of particulate matter, nor a meteorologist, climatologist, geographer, physicist, chemist, lawyer, doctor or an engineer.

“What I certainly am is curious”.

While working on energy, economy, mobility and climate policies, the author realised “how we painted ourselves into this corner of high pollution, despite having low per capita industrial production, vehicles and energy use”. That led to the writing of this book in a way!

Beginning the book in a slightly dramatic manner recalling a bomb explosion in New Delhi’s Paharganj area in 2005 which had claimed 67 lives, the author goes on to tell us that more Indians are killed every week by air pollution than have been killed in all India-Pakistan wars put together since Independence. In sheer magnitude, air pollution kills over a million Indians every year-albeit silently.

He has written at length on the particulate matter (PM), how it is

produced mechanically and chemically.

It is the chemical pollution that is more dangerous as it creates smallest fine and ultra-fine particles and they come into the air through fuel burning by different vehicles. The PM consists of soot, heavy metals, SO2, nitrogen oxides (NOx), CO and other compounds.

While the enlightened readers or science students will know the reasons of air quality deterioration around the winters, the author has tried to put things in greater perspective. He says that the cities in northern India suffer due to typical geographic and meteorological conditions. And that is Delhi and North India’s misfortune. In Delhi, the average wind speed in winter ranges between 1 and 3 meters per second, which is nearly one-third of the average speeds in the summer months and much lower than the average speed in Chennai. Delhi’s pollution levels are 40 to 80 per cent higher in winter months than the rest of the year.

The lack of winds that can carry away pollutants is one of the most important factors impacting air quality. And to make matters worse, Delhi is cursed with poor geography as the capital lies to the north-east of the Thar Desert, to the north-west of the central plains and to the south-west of the Himalayas. As winds arrive from the coasts, bringing with them pollutants picked up along the way, they get ‘trapped’ right before the Himalayas. The air pressure pushes from one direction and with the inability, to escape quickly in the other, the PM accumulates over the northern plains.

This accumulation and entrapment affects not only Delhi, but the entire expanse between Punjab in the west to West Bengal in the east. Imagine this ‘bowl’ that collects pollutants, with only a narrow outlet for it to escape.

He also touches upon the Dust Bowl crisis in the US in the 1930s when states like Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas experienced several dust storms which blocked out the sun, blotted monuments far away such as the Statue of Liberty and led to dust pneumonia and other health conditions.

It is these health conditions that cause slow and silent deaths and pose a real threat before India as more and more people are buying vehicles in cities, tree cover is dwindling, water bodies that work as carbon sinks are disappearing and agriculture stubble burning is not being effectively curbed.

India’s air pollution in the past 15 years has actually gone up, especially after it was tackled successfully in 2003 when CNG was introduced as an alternate fuel in Delhi by the Sheila Dixit government, though after Supreme Court rap.

I have been living in Delhi for a few years and have been affected by the worst phases of air pollution in the winters, starting from Diwali.

Poor people, living on roads and footpaths, the traffic police constables, food vendors, small shops owners, pedestrians all are among the worst sufferers and doctors at times advice people to altogether leave Delhi during the Diwali festivals. But is this a practical solution?

In recent years,Diwali days had seen

some kind of Supreme Court bans on fire crackers to control pollution but nothing positive happened. The pollution measurement machines stopped working in Delhi, thanks to crackers burning.

The author has also explained the role of various government agencies, ministries, Supreme Court rulings, NGT role and so on to find out how serious the response has been. He referred to the MC Mehta case and then a decision to form Justice SaikiaCommittee to tackle Delhi pollution in 1991.

Everything considered, the monster of pollution, the smog and the air quality impact on people is refusing to go down. Despite media and doctors calling it a medical emergency, Delhi and North India will take many more years to come out of the scary crisis or what is called the silent killer which is working day and night.

(The author is a veteran journalist who writes on politics, urban affairs and the environment. He can be contacted at kabhilash59@gmail.com and @Abhikhandekar1 --Twitter.)

www.urbanupdate.in | February 2019

45

URBAN AGENDA Smart Housing

Making housing policies ‘smart’ is need of the hour The flagship urban development projects, while aiming to develop a city in almost every aspect, tend to overlook the dark side of the city where the slums and squatters lie. A paradigm shift is required to curb the problem of increasing slums.

There is a need for smart initiatives to devise better solutions

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ndia is on the path of development and increasing urbanization plays a significant role in its economic, social and cultural growth. However, urbanization comes with a package of side effects which unless tackled wisely can lead to various urban problems.

Magnitude of urban population, unplanned spread of urban areas, and lack of appropriate infrastructure are some of the key urban problems that Indian cities are facing presently.

Mushrooming of slums and haphazard evolution of unauthorised coloniesis a common picture in Indian cities. The increased pace of urbanization coupled with industrialization has led to the growth of slums.

There are a number of factors that trigger the establishment and spread of slums, such as, lack of availability of developed land for housing, unaffordable land and built up property for the urban poor, huge number of rural migrants entering the cities in search of employment opportunities, and more. The population of urban India had crossed 285 million a long time back in 2001 and by 2030 it is expected that 50 per cent of the country’s population will reside in urban areas.

There is an urgent need to address the housing problem and come up with feasible solutions.

One of the solutions is to relocate slums by providing affordable housing for which Central and State governments had already taken steps and came out with various schemes but none of them addressed the problem to its core. Most of these schemes offered them houses in the outskirts. It is evident that people come to cities for livelihood and linking housing and livelihood is the key requirement that was not addressed in erstwhile schemes of the governments.

One of the probable and effective solutions to prevent establishment and spread of the slums is the development of ‘Smart Villages’. Empowering villages by providing facilities like electricity and water supply, proper sewage network, better

46 February 2019 | www.urbanupdate.in

educational and training institutions and so on could be taken up. So, the concept of smart cities and smart villages need to work in tandem.

Essentially, it calls for development of agricultural sector by integrating it with smart initiatives which in turn will generate job opportunities and will also enhance the education and skills among the rural populace. Government authorities need to understand complex issues of urban land availability and livelihood needs of the poor to devise out appropriate solution for this growing problem.

Adaptive or curative approach is needed for devising effective solutions for the slum problem. Curative approach basically inculcates upgradation of physical, social and economic services and security of land in slum areas. One of which can be ‘Rental housing’. This scheme is a type of housing tenure and was proposed by Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority (MHADA) in 2007 with an aim to provide housing to the urban poor.However, as per the norms of the scheme, the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. These housing projects may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by both. Such a scheme can also be seen as a potential remedy to housing inequality. There is a need for a paradigm shift in the approaches adopted to tackle slum problem. Rather than using punitive approaches such as schemes that relocateslums, methodologies that cure the issue such as implementing of schemes that involves redevelopment of slumscan be an effective measure of integration with in the existing city system. This is surely easier said than done owing to complexity of land ownership and policy regime but I am sure, in the age of smartness, our governments will be able to come out with a sustainable solution in which the poor of the city have a greater say and are not left behind.

Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor

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