Why NDMC area can be never be really 'smart'
New Delhi: If you go by NDMC's smart city concept note, its goal is to achieve WHO's air quality standard of 10 micrograms per cubic metre for PM 2.5 by 2025. It also aims to reduce per capita automobile count to 0.1 and clear all slums by that year.
However, it's not clear how NDMC will achieve all this with a plan limited to using information and communications technology to make the city smart.
The over Rs 1,000-crore special purpose vehicle (SPV) to be set up over five years with funding from Delhi government and Centre is being questioned by environmentalists and city planners. They ask why NDMC was selected at all for the project when its land use makes it inherently "un-smart". NDMC's area density is 40 people per hectare when guidelines for transit-oriented development calls for 2,000 people per hectare density.
"Lutyens' Delhi has only 3% of the capital's land area and less than 1% of the city's population lives here, that too mostly government employees. It can be made smart by allowing more people to live in the area and providing affordable housing. It cannot be an excuse to provide exclusive lifestyle to a select few," said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director of Centre for Science and Environment.
"We also have the data to show that there is no population growth in this area. So why is this island being made in NDMC?" she said, adding that interventions need to be made across the city to achieve the targeted air quality.
Ironically, the smart city guidelines themselves say that the city should be "compact and dense", "concentrated neighbourhoods around commerce and services".
NDMC commissioner Naresh Kumar said they will tender for private companies to execute the project and work on developing the SPV. He explained that the state government nominated NDMC while a panel of experts of the Centre's smart city project shortlisted it to be in top 20. "Our budget is in fact Rs 1,900 crore. We will not take money from the state but use Centre's money, draw private investments for this. We are ready to start now," Kumar added.
Even though for most projects the concept is similar, some cities do have some innovative ideas. "Ludhiana, for instance, wants to be Asia's largest bicycling manufacturing hub and the most bicycle-friendly city in the country. Coimbatore wants to rejuvenate its lakes. I think the reason Delhi's proposal had to be limited to using ICT is because of its land use restrictions," said Amit Bhatt, strategy head, integrated urban transport at Embarq.
Professor Pranav N Desai, project director of South Asia Sustainability Hub at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said, "The focus has to be on augmentation of resources, which will be a solution also from the socio-economic point of view." His team member Pravin Kumar Kushwaha said city management is being outsourced to private agencies but nothing is being done for areas that are in abject need of basic infrastructure.
A recent CSE analysis revealed that the population of central Delhi declined by 15% in the last decade. "Delhi needs 24 lakh dwelling units, more than half of them have to be for the urban poor. But density control at the centre bars a large part of the core from providing new stocks. This forces the middle class and poor to live at the periphery," their statement on Monday said.
Poor urban planning is in fact increasing travel distances and costs for the poor that the smart city should have addressed. CSE quoted an IIT study, which found for people relocated for infrastructure projects, cycling distance had increased from 3.27 km to 7.29 km and bus distance increased from 4.7 km to 14.68 km.
However, it's not clear how NDMC will achieve all this with a plan limited to using information and communications technology to make the city smart.
The over Rs 1,000-crore special purpose vehicle (SPV) to be set up over five years with funding from Delhi government and Centre is being questioned by environmentalists and city planners. They ask why NDMC was selected at all for the project when its land use makes it inherently "un-smart". NDMC's area density is 40 people per hectare when guidelines for transit-oriented development calls for 2,000 people per hectare density.
"Lutyens' Delhi has only 3% of the capital's land area and less than 1% of the city's population lives here, that too mostly government employees. It can be made smart by allowing more people to live in the area and providing affordable housing. It cannot be an excuse to provide exclusive lifestyle to a select few," said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director of Centre for Science and Environment.
"We also have the data to show that there is no population growth in this area. So why is this island being made in NDMC?" she said, adding that interventions need to be made across the city to achieve the targeted air quality.
Ironically, the smart city guidelines themselves say that the city should be "compact and dense", "concentrated neighbourhoods around commerce and services".
NDMC commissioner Naresh Kumar said they will tender for private companies to execute the project and work on developing the SPV. He explained that the state government nominated NDMC while a panel of experts of the Centre's smart city project shortlisted it to be in top 20. "Our budget is in fact Rs 1,900 crore. We will not take money from the state but use Centre's money, draw private investments for this. We are ready to start now," Kumar added.
Even though for most projects the concept is similar, some cities do have some innovative ideas. "Ludhiana, for instance, wants to be Asia's largest bicycling manufacturing hub and the most bicycle-friendly city in the country. Coimbatore wants to rejuvenate its lakes. I think the reason Delhi's proposal had to be limited to using ICT is because of its land use restrictions," said Amit Bhatt, strategy head, integrated urban transport at Embarq.
Professor Pranav N Desai, project director of South Asia Sustainability Hub at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said, "The focus has to be on augmentation of resources, which will be a solution also from the socio-economic point of view." His team member Pravin Kumar Kushwaha said city management is being outsourced to private agencies but nothing is being done for areas that are in abject need of basic infrastructure.
A recent CSE analysis revealed that the population of central Delhi declined by 15% in the last decade. "Delhi needs 24 lakh dwelling units, more than half of them have to be for the urban poor. But density control at the centre bars a large part of the core from providing new stocks. This forces the middle class and poor to live at the periphery," their statement on Monday said.
Poor urban planning is in fact increasing travel distances and costs for the poor that the smart city should have addressed. CSE quoted an IIT study, which found for people relocated for infrastructure projects, cycling distance had increased from 3.27 km to 7.29 km and bus distance increased from 4.7 km to 14.68 km.
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