A smart city is any city which has all the necessary and the basic infrastructure in order to maintain a decent quality of life with a minimum standard of living, a clean and hygienic environment, and adoption of latest technologies with the implementation of some smart solutions. There must be a decent infrastructure in order to manage the city assets including transportation facilities, schools, colleges, offices, government institutions and enterprises, power plants and industries, hospitals, and other community services. The smart city mission is an urban scheme launched in order to achieve 100 smart cities in the country as well as at the global level. The
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi’s vision “Digital India” has led to the development of this smart city mission.
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| Image credit: mapsofindia.com |
The smart city mission aims at achieving the basic infrastructural facilities which includes cleanliness and sanitation, development of the IT sector, adequate water and electric supply, public transport facilities, safety and security of the citizens, e-governance, recycling and regeneration of resources, planting trees and achieving greenery, and solid waste management. To achieve these objectives the city needs to adopt some smart solutions to be able to find itself through the smart city list. A smart city challenge competition must be conducted in order to select the smart cities. Also a smart city panel of experts have been formed which will help selecting the top smart cities.
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| Image credit: smartcitiesproject.com |
In order to implement the smart city action plan a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has been created for all the cities. The cities are required to fulfill certain criteria in order to be nominated for the smart city challenge competition. The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUd) aims at facilitating better quality of living and enabling sustainable and efficient habitats. The technical wing of MoUD is TCPO (Town and Country Planning Organization) which helps in formulating various aims, strategies, policies and administrative laws to ensure proper development within the city. Economic growth and development of the country must also be taken care of and the plans must be implemented in an effective way so that it benefits the country.
If the concept of smart city mission is implemented in the right direction then a better living standard is very soon expected. Various new and innovative measures are be adopted by the government to improve the quality of living within the country. The effective development of major projects can be advantageous to the country as well as for the residents ensuring environmental protection strategies. It is the responsibility of the town planners to enable sustainable growth and development of the city and they must verify their plans from time to time. A smart city must always look into the demands and the interests of the public to define a better livelihood by the reducing the costs and resource consumption backed by the enhancement of economic growth. If all the required objectives are fulfilled then the smart city mission will be a huge success both to the citizens as well as to the country.
Article by Anisha Dutta
She is a content evangelist who believes that the Science of today is the Technology of tomorrow.
She can be reached at https://twitter.com/Anisha_Dutta29
