URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

High-Tech

'SMART
CITY'
Core to Urban Landscape
"The cities of the 21st century are the largest sites of
human settlement today, and are increasingly acting as
critical nexus points of social, economic, ecological and
technological change."

44

The Masterbuilder | April 2015 | www.masterbuilder.co.in

- United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)

Sadagopan Seshadri
Chief - Content Development,
CE - Infrastructure - Environment

Amazing - All in a lifetime

Yes! From Internet, smart grid to smart
cities it has not been an 'eons' long journey.
The Information superhighway in early
1990s took to paving a revolutionary way
for people to communicate, access information and enter into commercial transactions locally & globally with great ease.
The advent of Internet was changing the
world at a feverish pace every passing day
by leveraging to continuously expand the
breadth of the platform in research, ad-

vertising, marketing and e-commerce in

improving lifestyles, livelihoods and growing our economies. An amazing achievement!
Then came the smart grid: A little later,
the concept of smart grid was born making way for adding intelligent devices and
communications capabilities within the
electric grid to actually improve its reliability and resiliency. Huge investments
were made globally by businesses and
technology companies on development of

the smart grid. Since, Innovation was key,

even smaller companies pitched in for different segments of this emerging space.
Smart grids are already changing the way
we live life. Amazing Again!
And its smart cities now!: The smart
grid evolution made one realize that integration could revolutionize this and on
doing so, it led us to the concept of smart
cities; the first decade of the 21st century
has seen, city information- highway enter
a new stage of smart city development,

URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

So the short answer is: A smart city is

an ICT enabled city.
Let's now take a look at one such prevalent guide for Smart Cities Readiness and
try to understand how this ICT enabled
'smart city' model can be actually applied.
First in light of the functions to be performed 'The Smart Cities Framework' is
generated, which is the key to understanding the big picture and how the different pieces relate (See Figure 4 - The
Smart Cities Framework).
The framework shows:
-

The blue columns are the city responsibilities.

Universal aspects common to all
responsibilities are in orange.
The green rows are the enabling

8.0

World Urban
Population

6.0

4.0

2.0

World Rural
Population

0.0
1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2020

2030

2040

2050

Figure 1 The burgeoning Global Urban population

living

mobility
governance economy

SMART
people technologies

urban production

intelligent

ICTs
&
CITY inclusive
sustainable active

environment capital
social
information

modern

Figure 2 The Smart City ICT driven

smart

digital citizen grid

communication control

ENERGY

45

And It's not for Power or Pelf! There is

a more pressing compulsion - Do not forget that , now we live in a world of seven billion and growing; this means that vital natural resources are depleting and those
that we call 'renewable' may not renew to
match the rate of consumption; this makes every resource precious. Fresh water
is just one such example that you need for
survival itself! ; Fresh air is yet another You no doubt can think quite a few others,
that none of us can do without. (see Figure
1 The burgeoning Global Urban population)
The planet is under threat of resource

1. Collect data
2. Communicate data
3. Analyze (or crunch) data

The Masterbuilder | April 2015 | www.masterbuilder.co.in

The need to change is 'Now'

Broadly speaking, ICT enables cities

to do three key things( see Figure 3):

10.0

Population (millions)

wherein 'Digitization', 'Networking' and

'Intellectualization' have gained a brand
new 'form, mode and trend' for city development; Interconnection, data banking &
sharing', intelligence, instrumentation and
creativity, has brought all transactions &
interactions for citizens and state to be in
real time & highly efficient with cost effectiveness.
The idea is of 'value addition' by transforming communities from traditional,
silo-type management with operational
approaches, to ones that proactively and
holistically exploit today's cutting-edge
technologies to real time response delivery of all services by prudent interconnectivity. And this is what optimizes cost of
all services, be it Energy, water, transport
and just everything. The welcome result is
minimum resources, maximum benefits
and huge savings that can be utilized in
bettering lives of all by social spending to
elevate quality of life.
With the progress already seen in
many developed world nationalities it is
imperative that others leap frog to grasp
this yet another amazing achievement!

crunch affecting 'each one of us wherever we are'. With the entry of the smart
grid and smart cities, efficiency takes over
reducing resource consumption.
Globally, we all are, forced to support
this 'Smart' drive because we need to beat
such resource crunch, as it affects 'each
one of us wherever we are'.
This catch has led to the paradigm
shift from a what's in it for me? attitude,
to thinking that we truly are in it together in
a global sense! Even if we flock together
only to avoid annihilation, yet it's a feel
good factor to rejoice that good sense has
prevailed on us. This in itself is an amazing
achievement!
So here we are embracing the smart
grid & graduating into smart cities to
effectively and efficiently manage the world
to ensure improved liveability, workability
and sustainability to the growing urban
populace.
A smart city applies information and
communications technology (ICT) to solve
problems. (See Figure 2)

URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

technologies that can make those

responsibility areas smart and sustainable.

THE THREE CORE FUNCTIONS OF A SMART CITY

Collect Information about

current conditions across all
responsibility areas (power,
water, transit, buildings, etc.).

Communicate Information,

Crush data, analyzing it to

sometimes to other devices,

sometimes to a control center
and sometimes to servers
running powerful software.

provide information, to
optimize operations and to
predict what might happen
next.

Figure 3 Smart City - Core functions

TECHNOLOGY ENABLERS

Instrumentation and Control

Connectivity
Interoperability
Security and Privacy
Data Management
Computing Resources
Analytics

46

The Masterbuilder | April 2015 | www.masterbuilder.co.in

Figure 4 - The Smart Cities Framework

Payments

Public Safety

Health and Human Service

Water and Wastewater

Transportation

Telecommunications

Energy

Built Environment

The Smart City

Framework

Universal Aspects

CITY RESPONSIBILITIES

Look at both enablers and responsibilities in more detail to understand how their
intersections can bring benefits to cities.
Where energy intersects instrumentation, for instance, you have devices such
as smart meters; Where it intersects data
management you have meter data management systems (MDMS); Where it intersects computing, you have outage management systems and dozens of other cutting edge applications
These correlations help in decision
making enabling one easily understand
why and how to share Infrastructure, share
policies, share costs and share data between departments. Well, smart cities use
technology smartly, and there are seven
such technologies that take control of
sets of functions. Figure 5 'Seven technology categories that enable smart cities' tables the technology (called 'enabler')
and functions it performs (called technology functions) that fall under the 'information and communications technology (ICT)
umbrella.
One enabler, for example, is instrumentation, which refers to smart meters,
for instance, or roadway sensors. Another
enabler is a high performance data management system.
These enablers can apply to any area
of city responsibility. For instance, an
enabling technology can make buildings
more efficient, water more affordable,

Enabler

Technology Function

Instrumentation &
Control

Examples include smart meters for electricity, water and gas; air quality sensors; closed circuit TV and video monitors, and
roadway sensors. Switches and control systems operate equipment remotely.

Connectivity

Enables a smart city's devices to communicate with each other and with a control center. Connectivity ensures that data
gets from where it is collected to where it is analyzed and used. Examples include citywide WiFi networks, RF mesh
networks and cellular networks.

Interoperability

Ensures that products and services from disparate providers can exchange information and work together seamlessly. It
prevents the city from being locked in to just one proprietary supplier and allows cities to buy from any company that
supports the city's chosed standards.

Security & Privacy

Includes technologies, policies and practices that safeguard data, privacy and physical assets. Examples include the
publishing of clear privacy rules and the implementation of a cybersecurity system.

Data Management

Includes storing, protecting and processing data while guaranteeing its accuracy, accessibility, reliability and timeliness.
Data is king in a smart city. Proper management is essential to maintain data integrity and value.

Computing
Resources

Refers to 1) Computer processing power, 2) Storate of data and 3) Special capabilities needed for smart cities. A geographic information system (GIS) is one essential capability, since it allows the smart city to know where everything is located.

Analytics

Creates value from the data that instrumentation provides. Analytics can identify new insights and unique solutions to
delivering services. It can even predict problems while there is still time to prevent them.

Figure 5 'Seven technology categories that enable smart cities'

URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

SILOED CITY FUNCTIONS

Apps
Apps

Apps

Apps

Apps

Platform

Platform

Platform

Platform

Data

Data

Data

Data

GIS

GIS

GIS

GIS

Communications

Communications

Communications

Communications

Electric

Water

Transport

Emergency

built to solve a single problem in a single

department, creating islands of automation that duplicate expenses while making it difficult to share systems or data.
The need to look at the problem in a
holistic manner and apply an integrated
'systems approach' to get optimal solutions, is the Smart City strategy (See Figure 6 'Traditional City Silo Approach v/s
Smart City Integrated Systems Approach'
'Smart' is about more than technology:

Apps

Platform

Data

GIS

Communications

48

The Masterbuilder | April 2015 | www.masterbuilder.co.in

INTEGRATED CITY FUNCTIONS

Cities leverage ICT to go beyond maintenance of their systems. They continuously enhance the city's overall liveability,
workability and sustainability. This is what
sustains them in a competitive global environment:

Figure 6 'Traditional City Silo Approach v/s Smart City Integrated Systems Approach'

transportation quicker, or neighborhoods

safer. Moreover, enablers push cities
toward overarching goals we call targets,
that every smart city should aim for.
There are a whole lot of problems that
smart technology can be put to resolve.
Cities are responsible for a variety of functions that impact the wellbeing of a community. ICT impacts all of them and takes
each to its logical solution delivering all
services at citizen's doorstep.
How 'smart city' designers should
get started? Well, becoming a smart city
and sustaining the status requires planning and upgrading on a continuous basis.

It requires
-

Leadership
Financing
Domain knowledge integration
Diligent implementation
Barriers elimination

Siloed city departments to integrated systems approach

Cities (traditional) often tackle challenges in a piecemeal fashion, due to shortterm financial constraints and long-term
traditions that divide city functions into
separate, siloed departments with little
interaction. As a result, many projects are

Liveability - Smart cities improve

liveability in numerous ways. For one,
they revolutionize people's relationship with city government. By providing instant, electronic access to the
information people need, the services
they require, and the interaction they
want, cities build citizen trust and satisfaction.
Workability- Smart cities accelerate
economic development by creating a
high-performance infrastructure
that attracts businesses and protects
them from cybercrime. Smart cities
that institute data via Open Data or
similar programs unleash their data
sets to be used by clever developers to

The Problem

The Smart City Solution

Planning

Ad hoc and decentralized Cost savings

aren't realised Limited potential for
scalability of investment

Coordinated and holistic Resources are shared Cost savings are fully
realized Investments are scalable Improved city planning and forecasting

Infrastructure

Runs inefficiently Costs more money

and resources to run

Optimized with cutting-edge technology Saves money and resources

Improved service-level agreements

System
operators

Guess at infrastructure conditions React

to problems Can't deploy resources
efficiently to address problems

Enjoy real-time reporting on infrastructure conditions Predict and

prevent problems Deploy resources more efficiently Automate
maintenance Save money

ICT
investments

Piecemeal and siloed Deliver suboptimal

benefit Don't realize economies of scale

Centrally planned Deployed across city departments and projects

Deliver optimal benefit Provide maximum value and savings

Citizen
engagement

Limited, scattered online connection to

citizens Citizens can't make optimal use of
city services (or easily find them)

Complete and singlular online presence Citizens can easily find and
use services Citizens can participate in smart city initiatives Two-way
communications between government and people Specialized services
focused on the individual citizen Citizens can both contribute to and
access real-time intelligent city data

Sharing data

Departments and functions are siloed

Departments rarely share data and
collaborate on initiatives

Departments and functions are integrated and / or shared Data is shared

between departments and better correlated with other data services
Results are improved Costs are cut

Figure 7- Smart City Approach

URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

build hundreds of apps for citizens

and city employees.
Sustainability- Smart cities reduce
resource use through optimization.
The gains from optimization and
improved planning mean that cities,
their businesses and their residents
consume less water, gas and power..
Smart cities also reduce duplication
of effort and reduce costs

Environment & Social Sustainability

Quality of
Life

Employment

Investment
Opportunities

Smart cities are 'Game Changers'

Yes, Smart Cities are game changers
by virtue of their quick response and solution delivery mechanism that makes a
smart city 'Amazingly different' from a
traditional city!
Here is how different they are from
the traditional counterparts in addressing
quickly, efficiently and cost effectively
problems inherent in traditional cities by
addressing each by a smart city approach.
(See Figure 7- - Smart City Approach ).
Smart City, leads to Green growth and
finally 'Smart- All Things'!
The dramatic growth in urbanization
provides impetus for the creation of smart
cities which leverage information and
communications technology (ICT) to
greatly improve the productivity, lifestyle
and the prosperity of smart city's people.
Additionally, green growth strategies can
build environmentally sustainable cities.
Smart city construction, characterized by Internet, high-efficiency and convenience for the soul of green development and digital service for people, is
becoming the new idea and new practice
for a new round of urban sustainable development, driven by innovation and transformation development.

Competitiveness
Smart Cities
Figure 8 - Smart City Attributes'

The so-called smart city not only is

impacting the current smart city construction in isolation, but more importantly
is making its imprint on urban development planning as a long-term development vision; including wisdom innovation
based on IT that envelopes creation of
smart community, smart home, intelligent transportation, smart logistics,
smart medicine, smart banking, smart
grid, smart government, smart schools,
smart agriculture, smart environment
and smart construction.
In a nutshell 'smart' has a direct role in
boosting the national economy and social
development, and sustainable development of new industries, new service models, new formats and innovative technologies. The 'smart' by definition aims to reflecting the development levels in those areas.
The aim is to focus on the three aspects that integrate each of these areas to
provide 'smart' character to inclusively
address developmental goals:

The first - 'Smart Infrastructure': In

building smart cities it is of vital importance to first incorporate in design the
'Wisdom of infrastructure' because it is
this, which is the intelligent conduit that
equips seamless passage of city information content unobstructed, readying the
city to 'smartness'. The physical and IT
infrastructure need to unified and complement each other. High degree of urban
IT information infrastructure is the key.
The second-'smart economy': The
drivers of economy including Business,
Industrial, Tourism, Cultural, should be
well identified, conceived, integrated with
physical infrastructure incl. transport, utility, services etc and visible in perception &
transactional convenience , which means
' ease of doing business'. Content production and service set ups for a 'smart city'
should be locally and globally hooked on
to well IT enabled information system.
The third - 'Smart Management: The
'wisdom of the city' or Smart Management
lies in building the wisdom of governance,
social governance, the application of modern technology capabilities and the clarity
of administrative processes, which represents the level of urban public services.
Equipped with the thriving information technology and the growing information society, the world is committed to the
development of e-governance policy, which
is now an important part of the smart city.
E-governance is not only the use of
information technology to increase the
efficiency of government services and the
quality of governance. It is associated with
the management of the government, involving the relationship between government and society, closely related to the
government's basic management system.
The Masterbuilder | April 2015 | www.masterbuilder.co.in

Figure 10 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: IBM & CISCO ensure integrated info on
weather monitoring , traffic forecast, emergency response coordination etc.

49

Figure 9 - Hamburg second largest container port in the world: intelligent

traffic management on smart phones

URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

Figure 11 - Amsterdam smart city: ICT & Low GHG emissions are some stand
out features; Smart lighting is by Philips

Making efforts to improve competitiveness and ultimately trying to achieve

e-governance by building e-government
is not only the inevitable result of the development of information technology and
the information society, but also is the inevitable trend of government management.

Different Entities Different definitions

Smart is given different definitions by
different providers though the ultimate
meaning converges to 'efficiency &
sustainability'. The attributes Smart City
serves and emerges from are outlined in
Figure 8 - Smart City Attributes' which is
self explanatory.
Some such definitions so provided by
solution providers, governing or standards bodies are :
The UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills considers smart cities a process rather than as a static
outcome, in which increased citizen

The Masterbuilder | April 2015 | www.masterbuilder.co.in

engagement, hard infrastructure, social capital and digital technologies

make cities more liveable, resilient and
better able to respond to challenges.
The British Standards Institute defines it as the effective integration of
physical, digital and human systems
in the built environment to deliver sustainable, prosperous and inclusive
future of its citizens.
IBM defines a smart city as one that
makes optimal use of all the interconnected information available today to
better understand and control its
operations and optimize the use of limited resources.
CISCO defines smart cities as those
who adopt scalable solutions that take
advantage of information and communications technology (ICT) it increase efficiencies, reduce costs and
enhance the quality of life.
Wikipedia defines a city as Smart when
investments in human and social capi-

So what's 'Your Smart'? :

What citizens think are their needs,
have to get shaped into the city development plan for making it smart. So, no two
cities by default are expected to be identical; the corollary being: a Designer or Planner just cannot do a cut & paste job. Designers & Planners need to customize each
citys design & development plan to its peoples need, if the city is to become smart.
Therefore, finally what needs to be
kept in mind by planners, designers, providers and implementers is that:
-

50

Each city has its own citizen priorities

and aspirations and hence needs to
customize 'smartness' to its specific
wants to cater to its specific needs.
Smartness measure for one may be
frivolous for the other!

Therefore each city needs to aggressively focus on making smart its service
needs in terms of both physical and IT
enabling infrastructure. A few examples
showcased here make this vital element
clear. See Figures 9, 10, 11 & 12 of global
smart cities who have customized 'smart'
to suit their prioritized needs.
-

Figure 12- Barcelona A citizen centric Smart city strategy

tal and traditional (Transport) and

modern (ICT) communications infrastructure fuel sustainable economic
development and a high quality of life,
with a wise management of natural
resources, through participatory
action and engagement (Caragliu et
al, 2009)
Accenture defines it as A Smart City
delivers public and civic services to citizen and businesses in an integrated
and resource efficient may while enabling innovative collaborations to improve quality of life and grow the local
and national economy

In terms of public services, London,

Seoul, Sydney, Chicago has features in
the cultural sports, these cities have a
special focus on sports facilities, museums, cultural venues and other services to the public;
The public services provided by Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and other
public places obviously embodies the
characteristics of the Latin nation, which
offer dance, rallies, public entertainment, information and services.
London, New York, Hong Kong pay
more attention to the real estate man-

URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

agement, this may be related to the

density of city population.
Due to national attention, Shanghai
and Beijing behave comprehensively
in terms of online service.
Chicago, London, Sydney and other
western cities put more emphasis on
children's services in the family life
services.
Due to the embodied religious sentiments factors, Cairo has particular
management in the religious environment.

But what these cities do not lose out is

in terms of business & citizen services, as
these cities to be 'smart', know that they
need to be responsive to citizen wants &
equally be concerned to facilitate business opportunities.
However, though individually each is
sustainable, the difference shows up when
ranking each one in a group;
Like in financial status the cities, Paris,
London, New York and Singapore belong
to the best cities in financial services.
Meanwhile, Moscow and Sydney are better
at setting up business.
Between comparables, London,
Berlin, New York and Toronto are better at
labor service while the production of Tokyo
is the best.
Each smart city is concerned about
the fields of environment, safety, education, health, transportation in public management, but the focus of each city varies.
Thus, ICT & smart technologies are thus
focused more in each case commensu-

rate with its own priority rating.

Transportation is a common problem
faced by large cities, many cities open up
the related applications and services, and
for example, Buenos Aires has developed
a mobile application that is related to
transportation.
London, Sydney, New York and Hong
Kong put more emphasis on environmental protection, not only is there the
administration of the estate, but also
there are the appropriate managements
on the forests, islands and other public
natural resources.
E-politics is an area that is used by
many capitals of countries, such as, Seoul,
Beijing, Moscow, London, Paris, Berlin
etc, paying more attention to E-politics
features.
From the perspectives of the applications of the medium and the levels of activity in public management, no doubt that
New York, Seoul and Tokyo are better.
Talking beyond today
A post-2015 development agenda
that is both unified in focus and universal
in form is emerging, tackling poverty eradication and sustainable development.
Such an agenda would have major
implications for the expected role of egovernment in supporting its implementation. It is shown by a 2014 Survey, that egovernment can contribute towards the
post-2015 development agenda by
strengthening national capabilities, enhancing governments' performance, in-

52

The Masterbuilder | April 2015 | www.masterbuilder.co.in

What are
smart cities

Why India
needs smart cities
340 million expected Indian
population
by 2030

These cities are

technology-driven and
use planned
infrastructure to
improve the standard
of living

The Plan

$41 trillion
investments in
smart cities are
likely in
20 years
Why
smart cities

100 smart cities in

India that Narendra Modi
led government plants
Old cities are also
planned to be
converted into
smart cities

Investments

Smart Cities

Figure 13 - Smart Cities' Quality of Life: The Need, Merit, Means & Money

By 2030, 60% of
world's population is
expected to live in cities
and towns. Governments
worldwide are working
to build them

creasing efficiency, effectiveness and inclusiveness of public services, promoting

transparency and reducing corruption in
the public sector, helping governments
go green, facilitating effective disaster
management, favouring an enabling environment for economic growth, as well as
promoting social inclusion through equitable access to services.
Whole-of-government approaches,
which are enhanced through ICTs, can
promote Integrated and inclusive service
delivery. The application of ICT in government provides opportunities for multistakeholder engagement by strengthening collaboration mechanisms, both within
the public sector and with relevant actors
outside, such as business, civil society,
communities and individual citizens. It
allows for broader participation in national and local policymaking and service
delivery through new channels and modalities of communication.
This 2014 Survey shows that progress
in e-government development has been
attained through increased e-participation, growth of the mobile channel and
social media, expanded usage and the burgeoning of open government data.
To truly become globally competitive,
our cities will need to work hard to develop
softer aspects beyond just growth: their
institutional effectiveness, social character, financial maturity and global appeal.
In other words, emerging market cities
should be able to make the leap from
attracting just capital to attracting talent
as well. The two fold need is of building/
retrofitting for basic infrastructure and
putting integrating ICT to it so that a city
transforms to a smart city.
These cities will be competing not only
amongst themselves, but also against cities in the developed world, which have legacy advantages, such as strong educational and infrastructure foundations,
built up over decades.
Emerging market cities will have to
leapfrog over their peers. Time will tell
how many will succeed and which of the
developed world cities will be able to maintain their primacy?
Smartening the Nation - The India Chapter
Urbanization in India has significant
implications for the future development of
the country.
By 2030, India's urban population will
trend to little less than twice that of the

URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

heritage sites. Swachh Bharat Fund has

been created to facilitate channeling of
80
money from individuals and companies
75
for
one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
70
pet
schemes. The contributions will be
63
60
given tax exemption. The programme entails an investment of nearly $34 billion
50
52
47
over the next five years to construct 120
40
42
million toilets in India by 2019.
37.7
30
Renewable energy: Tapping the
power of sun, renewable energy capacity
20
has been revised to 175,000 MW till 2022,
10
comprising 100,000 MW solar, 60,000 MW
wind, 10,000 MW biomass and 5,000 MW
0
small hydropower. Five Ultra Mega Power
1970-71
1980-81
1993-94
1999-2000 2009-10
2030-31
Projects of MW 4000 each have been
Figure 14 Increasing Urban Share of GDP in India
planned with all clearances in advance (
United States. And Indian cities will gen- mentioned in the Budget 2015-16, if truly i.e. in 'Plug & Play' mode) for private secerate close to 70% of the GDP. This will practiced, will provide a roadmap to the tor participation which are expected to
exert tremendous pressure on urban in- state governments to help create and gov- unlock investments up to $17billion.
Digital India: This is a $19 billion govfrastructure and services. It is, therefore, ern smart cities more effectively. Improvernment
initiative that seeks to transform
imperative that we find innovative solu- ing India's infrastructure is definitely the
the
country
into a connected economy,
tions for the urban challenges of growth first step towards building it as a smart
attract
investment
in electronics manuand sustainability. (See Figures 13 & 14)
nation.
facturing
and
create
millions of jobs. The
Though the concept of smart cities is
Some important features of the budrelatively new in India, we seem to be on get that confirm Modi government's con- National Optical Fibre Network Programme
is rolling out an optic fibre network of 0.75
the path to creating them. During UPAII tinuing interest in smart cities include:
million
kms, networking 0.25 million vilInfrastructure: Infrastructure has been
Kamal Nath, Union Minister for Urban
lages.
A
sum of $42 million has been alloDevelopment said, Under JNNURM given much more emphasis this year with
cated
for
the Digital India Programme and
Phase II, every state will have at least one the setting up of a National Investment
telecommunication
and electronic indusand
Infrastructure
Fund
(NIIF)
with
an
smart city. And with P.M Modi on driving
tries manufacturing under a Make in India
seat this has transformed to 100 new annual flow of $3.4 billion.
An increased private players partici- plan. An e-biz portal has been launched
smart cities on plan.
The transformation on ground with pation is expected with the government's which integrates 14 regulatory permisbig budgets , investment, plan, and kick off decision to take into it's ambit some of the sions at one point in order to facilitate
ease of doing business in India.
is yet to be seen. The 2015-2016 Union risks in order to make PPP more attractive.
Money to states: Opting for cooperaThe Overall investment in infrastrucBudget stayed away from using the term
smart cities, unlike the one in 2014-2015 ture will climb up to be just under $12 bil- tive federalism, thus giving more power to
which made a special mention, but that lion in the year 2015-16, over the year the state governments of the country, Buddoesn't imply that this P.M 's government 2014-15 from the Centre's Funds and get 2015-16 has accepted 14th Finance
is swaying away from smartening the resources of Central public sector enter- Commission's recommendation of substantially higher devolution of Union taxes
prises (CPSEs).
nation.
Roads and railways also have been to States. At 42% devolution, it is expected
Last year's budget allocated $1.27 billion for the development of 100 smart cit- provided an additional allotment of $4 bil- that the states' share will increase from
ies. (Note all amounts in this article are in lion while the DMIC corridor which too is $55.6 billion in year 2014-15 to about $87
U.S. dollars.) In this year's budget, fa- to have some greenfield smart cities has billion in 2015-16, a quantum jump, which
mously touted as the country's first fed- seen an allotment of $200 million for would enable them to address their speeral budget, the government has made basic infrastructure. This means a direct cific needs through flexibility in design,
provisions for "smart practices and smart and indirect infusion of around $40 billion implementation and financing of programmes and schemes. This would allow
living." For urban development, $1 billion will be towards infrastructure.
Tourism: To kick start the tourism sec- the states to have better financial ability in
has been allocated to the Urban Rejuvenation Mission, while $84 million is mar- tor in a radical manner, the government fulfilling the needs of their cities.
Direct benefits transfers: According
ked as the spend on habitation and devel- has envisaged landscape restoration,
to
the
Economic Survey of 2014, there are
signage
and
interpretation
centres,
parkopment of 100 smart cities.
Despite not finding any mention in the ing, access for the differently abled, visi- about 125.5 million Jan Dhan bank acnew budget, the government is creating tors' amenities, including securities and counts,17,757 million Aadhaar ( social
the building blocks which are paving the toilets, illumination and plans for benefit- security) numbers and 904 million mobile
way for 100 smart cities. The provisions ing communities around them at various phones in the country. To prevent leakUrban share of GDP in India

The Masterbuilder | April 2015 | www.masterbuilder.co.in

53

URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

54

The Masterbuilder | April 2015 | www.masterbuilder.co.in

ages of social benefits from reaching the

under-privileged, direct transfer of benefits has been initiated. A sum of $1 billion
has so far been transferred directly, as
LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) subsidy to
115 million LPG consumers. This is to be
extended further with a view to increase
the number of beneficiaries from 10 million to 100.3 million.
Social security: A functional social security system for all Indians will be created,
especially the poor and the under-privileged. A Senior Secondary School is to be
built within 5 km reach of every child and a
provision to be made for medical services
in each village and city. An allocation of $17
million has been made for Nirbhaya Fund
formed for women's security and safety.
Innovation: An Atal Innovation Mission
(AIM) will be established to involve academics, entrepreneurs and resear-chers
and draw upon national and international
experiences to foster a culture of innovation, R&D and scientific research in India.
Liveability: There's also a provision
for Swachh Bharat Cess, which will be
used to improve the quality of life and public health.

India - The Larger Agenda

India's Smart City plan is part of a
larger agenda of creating Industrial Corridors between India's big metropolitan
cities. These include the Delhi-Mumbai
Industrial Corridor, the Chennai-Bangalore
Industrial Corridor and the BangaloreMumbai Economic Corridor. It is hoped
that many industrial and commercial centers will be recreated as Smart Cities
along these corridors. Similarly the idea
is to shore up 'Smart Cities' on major
ports for a seamless business process.
In India Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka
and Kerala are few of the states where
maximum number of smart cities would
be developed in coming years.
The idea is to splurge the country with
infrastructure & make it ICT enabled. Both
are priority for growth. And this calls for
huge investment and very diligent application of plans for success.
Technology drives Smart Business
Several industry experts have given
various definitions for India's smart city
and in all of them; technology has been
mentioned as the major enabler .It is

believed across the world that a city can

only grow on a sustainable basis if there
are opportunities for economic development, entertainment, education, healthcare and many such services.
Instrumental in the development of
Smart Cities are partnerships with technology firms like IBM and Cisco. IBM prepared the Integrated Communication
Technology (ICT) Master Plan for Dighi
Port Industrial Area in the DMIC that also
provides for the establishment of an Intelligent Operations Center which uses IBM's
Smarter Cities software to integrate data
from various agencies at one command
center.
Cisco prepared the ICT Master plan of
four smart cities under the DMIC projectDholera in Gujarat, Shendra in Maharashtra, Manesar in Haryana and Khushkera in Rajasthan.
And in Bangalore, Cisco is converting
a 5 sq. km area around Electronics City,
the IT-Hub in the city's peripheries, into a
Smart City. Cisco entered into a partnership with the Electronic City Industrial
Association (ELCIA) to establish an Internet
of Things (IoT) innovation hub that would
help companies develop software applications that can be deployed in the 100
smart cities.
With the first phase of the project at
Electronics City underway in 2015, Cisco
now has set aims to leverage the experiments it carries out in the Living Lab
there for its projects in other Smart Cities.
Existing cities such as Hyderabad,
Surat, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Mangalore, Jamshedpur, Kanpur, Delhi, Mumbai
and Chennai have launched initiatives
related to the deployment of advanced
communications systems, metro rail systems, traffic management systems,
smart meters, GPRS for solid waste management, GIS to manage property tax, online water quality monitoring, online building plan approval schemes to name a few.
(See Figure 15 'Delhi goes the GIFT way'.)
Foreign Governments & Agencies pitch in

Key Features
Wi-Fi hubs to
Mobility through
provide 100%
surface-level &
internet coverage elevated roads
at 100Mbps
Figure 15 Delhi goes the GIFT Way

Buildings
based on
green
technology

Top-notch
water and
solid waste
management

100%
metered
power
connection

High-frequency
mass transport
and dedicated
bicycle mlanes

They show their presence wherever

they see business and India is no exception. india too can strike deals for development & trade translating into growth. The
government has already realized the need
of International bodies and private sector
for building smart infrastructure.
Asian Development Bank declared its

URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

Figure 16 - Palava Smart City, Mumbai: A

view of Palava city: The Lodha Group's city,
near Mumbai, is based on the 'walk to
everything' principle, where every home is
five minutes from utility services. Energy,
transport, water and waste management,
are controlled by a command centre.

commitment in supporting India's 100

smart city projects. While speaking in
Delhi's Sustainable Development Summit 2015, Takehiko Nakao, president,
Asian Development Bank says, ADB is
also firmly committed to supporting
India's 100 smart cities initiative. The
use of technology and intelligent systems
will improve urban services for the poor,
including sanitation and affordable transportation, Nakao added.

56

The Masterbuilder | April 2015 | www.masterbuilder.co.in

U.K & Singapore

The United Kingdom (UK) is collaborating with India for developing the
Bangalore-Mumbai Economic Corridor
project with the help of private companies
from Britain. India has also got into an
agreement with Singapore to use its expertise in smart cities and urban planning
for developing the 100 Smart Cities.
MoU with Spain
Earlier this month, Spain has also
shown interest in transforming Delhi into
a Smart city. Jaime Garcia-Legaz Ponce,
Minister of State for Trade of Spain in a
meeting with M Venkaiah Naidu has
shown interest in transforming Delhi into
a Smart city. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries in this regard will focus in evolving
master plan for transforming Delhi into a
Smart city

MoU with USA

India has already signed three MoUs
with the USA to develop three smart cities
in the cities of Allahabad, Ajmer, and
Visakhapatnam. As per the agreement,
the U.S will help the cities in project planning, infrastructure development, feasibility studies and capacity building. This
opportunity, has been seized by the USbased communications systems company
Avaya. It implement its new Fabric Network Connect technology in India's Smart
city project. The technology includes components such as surveillance, communications and sensors to enable Internet of
Things (IoT), which has already been
used in Bangalore International Airport.
The solution allows airport network to
carry out simultaneous applications such
as universal flight information system, airport operations software and SAP ERP
system, critical voice service and Common User Self-Service (CUSS).
Tie-up with Germany
Germany too has shown willingness
to enter into partnership with India for
developing three Smart cities across the
country. A six-member joint committee
has also been formed to design a plan and
identify the cities within a time frame. These
decisions came at a meeting between
Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah
Naidu and the German Minister of Envi-

ronment, Nature Conservation, Building

and Nuclear Safety, Barbara Hendricks,
who said that the Government of Federal
Republic of Germany was keen to be associated with India's smart city project.
Some New Smart Cities in India
Many a New Smart City has been
planned by States of Maharashtra, Kerala,
Chatisgarh, A.P, to usher in growth. Some
are in private sector too, like Palava near
Mumbai by Lodha group (Figure 16).
Naya Raipur (Chattisgarh)
The newly created state of Chhattisgarh
in November 2000, led to Raipur being considered for the capital of the state. Naya
Raipur a new city 20 kms from existing city
of Raipur, is being developed as the state
capital of Chhattisgarh and the city will
emerge as the country's first smart city
with modern facilities. The government
has planned to build new city as 'Green
City', designed as citizen and visitor friendly city. The authority is to adopt best practices for water harvesting, waste water
recycling and use of nonconventional
sources of energy.
The development plan includes an
area of 80.13 kms, which will house
500,000 inhabitants by 2031. It has well
defined zones for institutions, housing,
commerce, light industry, recreation and
extensive parks, including a green belt.

URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

Figure 17- Smart city 'kochi'promoted by UAE's Dubai Holdings with Kerala Govt.: 2020 Completion Target

The development plan 2031 consists of 3

layers Core Zone, Peripheral region and
Airport Zone. In order to reduce the carbon emission and use of personal modes,
the authority has planned an integrated
network of Bus Rapid Transit and Light
Rail Transit.
Kochi Smart City
Kochi Smart City, covering over 246
acre, is an IT township project, promoted
by UAE based Dubai Holdings and Government of Kerala. The expected project
completion is by 2020 and has potential
for around 90,000 jobs. (See Figure 17).

GIFT city is conceptualized as a global

financial and Information Technology services hub. GIFT city is the first of its kind in
India and is supposed to create 5 lakh
each direct and indirect jobs respectively
(See Figure 18).
An example of modernization is its
solid waste management system wherein
solid waste will be removed by suction
from homes and offices through pipelines
conveying directly to a waste processing
plant (See Figure 19).
With 1,000 MW electric supply, piped
natural gas, centralized AC system, international fibre landing system and many
more, it will develop world class integrated multimodal transportation system
(MRTS/ LRT/ BRT), aiming for 90% population movement by public transport.

The first phase of the project was

scheduled for March 2015 completion.
With 8.8 million sq. ft. of built up space of
which at least 6.21 million sq. ft. this project will be specifically dedicated for IT/
ITES/allied services.
Smart City Kochi's master plan include
IT offices, retail and F&B, hotels, residential apartments, schools, colleges, hospitals, parks and open green spaces, and will
be self contained compact urban habitat.

These 7 new cities are

Gujarat International Financial Tec (GIFT)

Spread over 886 acres and at a distance of 18 kms from Ahmedabad airport,

New Cities (Delhi- Mumbai industrial corridor)

Seven new smart cities are being developed along the proposed Delhi Mumbai
Industrial Corridor (DMIC) by respective
states with help of foreign aid. Work on
two was planned to begin in 2014 with
expected scale up to 24 new cities by 2040.

Ahmedabed / Dholera (900 sq km /

Gujarat) [See Figure 20]
Shendra / Bidkin (84 sq km /
Maharasthra)

The Masterbuilder | April 2015 | www.masterbuilder.co.in

57

Figure 18- 'GIFT' Smart City Unique Global Financial Hub First of it's kind in India

URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

Manesar / Bawal (380 Sq km / Haryana)

Khuskhera / Bhiwadi / Neemrana
(150 Sq km / Rajasthan)
Dighi Port Area (230 Sqkm /
Maharashtra)
Dadri / Noida / Ghaziabad (250 Sq km /
Uttar Pradesh)
Pithampur / Dhar / Mhow (370 Sq km /
Madhya Pradesh)

Port Cities
Indian government is working on an
ambitious plan to build one smart city
each at the country's 12 major ports, at an
estimated total investment of ` 50,000
crore, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has
said."Each port will construct one smart
city. Each city will be built with an expenditure of about ` 3,000-4,000 crore," said
the Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping."
These will be green smart cities.

58

The Masterbuilder | April 2015 | www.masterbuilder.co.in

Aspirations need Arithmetic back up!

Though Mr Modi pledged 70.6 billion
rupees shortly after poll win to kick-start
his goal of developing as many as 100
energy-efficient, technology-driven smart
cities, some have sought to rein in expectations. The concern is of millions of Indians pouring into cities from poorer rural
areas every year, straining already stretched affordable housing, public transport
and basic services, and for this much
more money is needed.
Diane Farrell, acting president of the
US-India Business Council, said companies would only become involved in the
city's projects if there was a clear profit to
be made.Right now the cities are in a
phase where they are putting all of their
aspirations on the table, but then you have
to sit back and work out how to pay for it,
Ms Farrell, who visited India as part of

Figure 19- GIFT: High rises as one shown, with

sparkling glass facades would form a necklace
around the river curve, much like Shanghai

a US fact-finding delegation in January,

this year said.Cities cannot be reliant on
US companies for funding or foreign governments, they need to develop successful PPPs [public-private partnerships],
she said.
Thus, though the intent of government may be true, the means need to be
found to develop cities and jobs. And the
latter part is what is stemming concern
from many a quarter including prospective investors.
Caution ! ' Achtung' - Pay Attention Please:
If you thought India was far behind
other countries in terms of smart cities,
think again. There may be many aspects
of 'Smart' attributable to a city that we have
not really understood in a 'wholesome'
fashion and are just looking at 'smart' as a
fancy concept. If that is the case, then we
need to shift focus, perceive the 'reality' of
being 'smart', be 'down to earth' and only

after being clear about ' smart' we should

venture further in this direction. So the
first step is to understand what we want.
We can get only what 'we ask' for and
not what 'we think we are asking for'!
When a leadership expresses itself, the
policy maker, conceptualiser and implementer should all be on the same page.
Terms and concepts expressed by such
proposers (lacking domain knowledge)
should be understood by domain experts
in real context of what was meant and then
reasonably transformed to real goals. Otherwise,whatweareheadingforisadisaster!
When you look at the challenges facing India's cities, it's easy to start hyperventilating,said Anil Menon, responsible
for developing smart city strategies in India
at tech giant Cisco. As I already said, all
across the world, growth on a sustainable
basis is possible only if there are opportunities for economic development, entertainment, education, healthcare and
many such services; all put together in a
balanced viable & optimal mix.
Therefore even before concrete
pours for work to begin in a big way on the
government's ambitious smart-city project, there does seem to be justified concern over the initiative possibly turning into
an elitist concept that strays away from
what it really means to be 'smart'. And it is
essential to realise that 'smart' is not just
only about 'Technology'.
Well, then it is a vital area of contemplation, that should be matter of yet 'another story'! w

Author's Bio
The author leads our Delhi bureau. An
Engineer and qualified ADR professional
(NALSAR alumnus), Sadagopan Seshadri
has been a senior Contract Management
Professional in large national & International Companies. His domain experience is in Building Products, Cement plants
and Mega Power project execution. He
has been an expert visiting faculty and
univ. examiner for Contract Management
at the SSAA, IP University, New Delhi.
Being passionate about Environment he
has now turned to Landscape Projects
design teamed with like-minded architects
& engineers for sustainable landscapes
development He is vocal with his views on
theseareasthroughhis writings.
He can be reached at:
[email protected]

Figure 20 - Dholera smart city smart transportation, connectivity, clean energy and more