The Smart Cities Challenge
SMART CITIES

The Smart Cities Challenge

Managing the high level of urbanisation has made it imperative for the government to resort to smart concepts and solutions. For India, this has resulted in the identification and planning of 100 smart cities.

With urbanisation at its peak in India, a challenge is a great way for cities to get smart - quite literally. On the premise that a bit of competition never hurt anybody, the Smart Cities mission launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month, along with the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), called for the selection of potential candidates based on a two-stage competition, the ´City Challenge´. Endorsing the need for such a competition among states to ensure efficient planning and economic sustainability, Pratap Padode, Founder-Director, Smart Cities Council India, says, ¨The Smart Cities mission and AMRUT are likely to infuse a total of Rs 400,000 crore, once integrated with other missions like Digital India, Swachh Bharat, Housing for All, etc.¨

Currently, while 30 per cent of the Indian population resides in urban centres, these centres contribute around 65 per cent to the national GDP, states a recent Deloitte report. It is further projected that urban India will contribute about 75 per cent of the national GDP in the next 15 to 20 years while another 300 million people get added to the existing 300 million dwelling in urban centres. The speed of urbanisation will exert immense pressure on infrastructure, finance, natural resources and quality of life. To relieve some of this pressure, it is imperative for the government to resort to smart concepts and solutions. This, clearly, is one of the drivers of the 100 smart cities concept. ¨The mission will attract huge investments from international companies and even the private sector, which has been shying away from public-private participation,¨ adds Padode.

Identifying cities
The Ministry of Urban Development defines a smart city with three vital focus areas: Basic infrastructure; the use of ´smart´ solutions to make infrastructure and services better; and reliance on area-based development. So, which could these cities be? ¨At present, only Lavasa near Pune can be classified as a smart city. Other cities (such as Mumbai and Delhi) are still in the process of upgrading their systems and could qualify as smart in the future,¨ says Kanwaljeet Singh, Business Development, Energy and Smart Cities, Schneider Electric India. ¨Varanasi, Allahabad, Gurgaon and Vizag also stand out as potential smart city candidates in the country.¨

Recently, Cisco has laid down plans to provide networking infrastructure for smart city projects in Navi Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur and Lucknow. This includes services such as street lighting, waste management, and communication through the command-and-control centre or integrated operations centre. ¨We have been talking to these cities about the best way to do this, following which they will come up with their procurement procedures,¨ says Aamer Azeemi, Managing Director, Cisco, adding that the company is in discussion with many cities. ¨We have done the complete smart city planning for four cities in the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor,¨ he shares. These include the greenfield cities of Dholera Special Investment Region in Gujarat, Shendra-Bidkin Mega Industrial Park in Maharashtra, Manesar Bawal Investment Region in Haryana and Khushkhera Bhiwadi Neemrana Investment Region in Rajasthan.

Further, an ambitious plan is being laid by the government to build one smart city each at the country´s 12 major ports, amounting to a total investment of about Rs 50,000 crore. Moreover, with Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai to be turned into a smart business hub, five more such smart hubs are being planned in the city.

Tech-play
Technology, which is essential to deliver civic services efficiently, lies at the heart of this transformation. It enables the integration of government departments, planning processes, information from various sources, and the creation of an intelligent and interconnected network of infrastructure services. ¨All this means influx of data and terabytes,¨ says Rajiv Saxena, Director-Sales, India Public Sector, Commercial and SAARC, NetApp India Pvt Ltd.

¨To manage staggering amounts of structured and unstructured data, the government needs to put in place robust storage architecture to help departments organise data on the basis of sensitivity of information, importance and accessibility.¨

In the context of smart cities, where virtually everything involves data, the significance of storage is immense.

¨A storage system can help ensure non-disruptive access to data, which is critical for government functions,¨ says Philips Ranjit, Director-Cloud Business, NetApp India Pvt Ltd. ¨As we progress further into implementing plans for smart cities, more decision-makers will realise the need to leverage multiple Cloud solutions and architectures (including hybrid Clouds) to meet their dynamic business and technology challenges.¨ The hybrid Cloud model will allow agencies to maintain control of data while maximising Cloud computing economics such as money saving through shared services, improved security, robust infrastructure and operational efficiencies.

Highlighting IT as a key enabler of smart cities, Lux Rao, CTO & Leader, HP Future Cities, says, ¨Cities that are future-ready will ride on a robust IT framework. It is a key enabler and will ensure the whole gamut of citizen engagement, ranging from delivery of services, information for all and ongoing dialogue with citizens to monitoring the metrics.¨

Undoubtedly, ICT will be the difference between an ordinary city and a smart one. Dr Sumit D Chowdhury, Founder, Gaia Smart Cities, says, ¨We anticipate that anywhere between 5 per cent and 15 per cent of the project cost should be kept aside for pure hardware, network and software technologies, and another 5 per cent for the analysis and use of the data in everyday operations, which will be part of the business.¨

Utilities and solutions
There are two components to any smart city: Physical infrastructure and software. Every city, from ancient times to now, has required roads, water, power, parks, security, transportation, shopping, food production, and services of different types for its citizens. What has changed is that all these facilities can now be designed using analysis of data (See infographics on page 56). Therefore, you get smarter roads where traffic lights are coordinated with the amount of traffic and smarter water by measuring the amount of water being consumed and then planning how much to buy, how much to clean and purify, and how much to store and distribute. While smarter power and the fine granular measurement can improve load factors and reduce electricity cost, smarter grids for electricity distribution improve the resiliency of power networks. Additionally, smarter transportation, agriculture and services can be possible by backing every decision with data collection and analytics.

This considered, the benefits building information modelling (BIM) offers at various stage are proven. ¨It can play a significant role to make smart cities a success,¨ affirms Sonali Dhopte, Director, Excelize. She highlights some goals for BIM adoption or implementation in smart cities:

  • At the design stage: Visualisation of the project leads to reduction in coordination time; reduction in time by design changes; accuracy in data used for construction as BIM lets us build virtually before building physically.
  • At construction stage: Reduction in rework at site owing to clash detection and resolution; accuracy of Bill of Quantities (BOQ) and consequently material procurement; delay monitoring through 4D construction simulation; availability of an as-built model for facility management.
  • At maintenance stage: Integration of design data with maintenance data; impact of any updates or renovations can be assessed against the data available in the BIM model.

Traffic is a persistent concern in cities that require a radical approach. In this regard, Ashwin Natarajan, Founder & CEO, SMIDER, tells us, SMIDER is a device built on proprietary technology that enables traffic management authorities to reduce congestion times by routing traffic into alternate routes or allows for an increase in lanes of the existing road network to smooth the flow of traffic. As the device can be installed as a standalone unit on a divider or on the complete length of the divider, it can work to route traffic or increase road capacity without building expensive flyovers or underpasses.¨

Internet of Things (IoT) is all about using sensors to capture data, and leveraging on data analytics to bring about the efficiency or smartness. And Mayank Manish, CEO, Infrovate Consulting and Solutions Pvt Ltd, says that Infrovate has those sensors and the technology. He says that the company´s expertise lies in sustainable and secure RFID-based offerings and their intelligent implementation. ¨RFID is a type of a sensor and we build on that capability of sensors - build the data analytics platform where data is captured by the sensors and allow the cities to take smart decisions - whichever areas these are used in.¨ How does this help? It makes the eco-system become more efficient, controlled, secure and of course makes the setup smarter! Energy savings and smarter control of lighting is another crucial factor.

¨This has opened a new window of opportunities in street, high-mast lighting and all high-power lighting applications,¨ says Rahul Sapre, CEO, Elle Green Lighting. ¨The lights we manufacture have state-of-the-art technology to enable users to control them remotely and ensure power savings for years of operations.¨ As interactive features are the key to make any product usable in smart applications, this will help users reduce cost while gaining operational control.

Greenfield vs. retrofitting
Establishing greenfield smart cities is a long-term plan and the effect will be felt only in the next 20 years. However in India, a huge opportunity also lies in retrofitting existing cities - brownfield cities - and connecting them for the first time to the information grid.

When asked to choose between the two, Azeemi answers, ¨India needs a mix of both.¨ He adds that greenfield projects are fairly straightforward as you don´t have legacy challenges. But one cannot build a whole lot of greenfield projects because of various issues, including availability of land. He also agrees that the bigger challenge and opportunity is in making existing cities smart as the bulk of the population today lives in them.

Sharing her take, Sandhya Godey, Principal Consultant, Phoenix IT Solutions Pvt Ltd, says, ¨Greenfield projects are easier than retrofitting because a greenfield smart city can be developed as per what you want, unlike retrofitting where compromises need to be made considering city limitations.¨ However, she is confident that both opportunities will yield good results. We couldn´t agree more.

CW´s recommendations
All considered, while challenges of execution still exist in major infrastructure projects in India, the smart cities concept is a promising one that has the support of the government and all stakeholders. With the government releasing guidelines seeking better execution of projects (see guidelines on page 50),

CW spoke to leading stakeholders to come up with suggestions to make smart cities a success in India:

  • The Prime Minister and Ministry of Urban Development can consider appointing a cabinet-level managing director and chief information officer (CIO) for smart cities with executive powers like the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). This CIO needs to appoint another 20-30 state level CIOs to work with one or more states for the coordination of data, systems and processes across all projects. This would help standardise systems, processes, hardware and software across various verticals.
  • The industry has been trying to push through the selection of a consortium-based approach rather than the standard L1-based procurement, which has its challenges. Once experienced people from across the world gather with complementary skill sets, the chances of success are higher than going by the lowest quote. Here specifications are the key to quality bids.
  • For foreign investors to come in, we need proactive and fast dispute resolution and single-window clearance for ease of business.
  • For timely completion of projects, all clearances should use online processes and be cleared in a time-bound manner.
  • If our taxes are in line with our competitors like Singapore, Dubai and Malaysia, and if the legal system does not take too long, global finances will flow.
  • Competition is good but everyone should work together on a common agenda. Despite people saying there is no money, many are willing to do things out of their own pocket. We need local talent and the need to create awareness among them. A mandatory rule without clarity in most cases leads to rebellious reactions.
  • Give start-ups equal opportunities to contribute to the development of smart cities. Rather than just looking at experience, ideas should be analysed in terms of true benefits, and the? ?government should give new entrepreneurs a platform to serve the nation.
  • ICT will be the difference between an ordinary and smart city.
  • One smart city to be built in each of India´s 12 major port cities.
  • Huge opportunity: Retrofitting existing cities and connecting them for the first time to the information grid.

¨States have been allotted with the number of cities that can be made smart.¨
Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu shares a brief on schemes for both Smart Cities and AMRUT with CW.

¨Prior to launching the schemes, we have worked out the details, guidelines have been prepared, states have been taken into confidence, discussions have been held with various stakeholders and then it has received approval from the Cabinet. There will be competition across the country in the form of a city ´challenge´ system, with guidelines for how many cities a state can propose as well. The proposed city will be assessed on its capacity, population, revenue, employment ratio, sanitation, solid waste management, provision for drinking water, electricity, transportation, education and other existing facilities along with credit ratings. Keeping all this in mind, especially the population, the states have been allotted with the number of cities that can be made smart. While a total of 100 cities are being planned, the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh have more cities considering their urban population. Also, countries like the US, Japan and France have come forward to give technical support. Other countries are also showing interest with regard to joining smart cities projects through PPP. We are going to involve them in a big way because smart cities require huge investment, which will come from internal as well as external sources.¨
Venkaiah Naidu Union Urban Development Minister

South India´s SmartCity Kochi

SmartCity Kochi´s first phase is in progress and nearing completion. The project plan takes into account economic, social and environmental sustainability and seeks to create over 90,000 direct jobs by 2020. Baju George, Managing Director-Operations, SmartCity, SmartCity Kochi, tells us more.

Smart features

  • Power generation from non-conventional energy sources, rainwater harvesting, zero-waste discharge, reuse of grey water.
  • Smart Digital Plan will exploit technology to offer structured living conditions; operations centre will monitor data addressing safety, security, building operations and maintenance, water and waste management, traffic flow and transit services.
  • A co-development model to bring in real-estate developers to jointly build the township; current infrastructure cost is Rs.300 crore.

Opportunities 

  • Need for commute infrastructure: Metro, waterways and other public and private transport.
  • Reliance on principle of self-sustenance - from arranging water through the nearby river and building substations and solar power plants to storm-water drainage systems; these are already in progress.
  • Smart governance through efficient monitoring and control of energy and utility consumption, security, fire, water, road access, transportation and traffic, etc.

Narendra Modi´s GIFT to India

GIFT city, spread over 886 acre, has a total built-up area of about 62 million sq ft, of which Phase-I includes 10 million sq ft, Phase-II 22 million sq ft and Phase-III 30 million sq ft till 2020-22. Phase-I of the infrastructure rollout is on the verge of completion. Nilesh Purey, Head-ICT, GIFT City, tells us more.

Smart features

  • 7 + 8 m ventilated and secure ´utility tunnel´ below the city touches every building.
  • DCS (district cooling solution) to supply chilled air to buildings.
  • Vacuum chute-based automatic waste collection system collects waste at every level.
  • Uninterrupted power supply via electrical distribution system.
  • ICT to manage and monitor infrastructure.
  • GIFT City Urban Development Authority has designed and issued common IBMS guidelines for all developers.

Opportunities

  • Transport-oriented; BRTS and Metro connectivity.
  • Phase-I rollout of raw water pumping station and water treatment plant done; construction of master reservoir underway.
  • Commissioning of 66 KVA substation complete; feasibility study to commission gas-based captive power plant.
  • Will require participation for storm-water drainage in second and third phase of infrastructure development.
  • Mobile app for citizens to access services, lodge complaints, pay bills, etc.

Mission-wise guidelines seeking better execution of projects for Smart Cities and AMRUT

The Central Government has radically overhauled the operational guidelines for implementation of Smart Cities and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).

SMART CITIES MISSION

  • Central assistance to be used only for infrastructure projects with larger public benefit.
  • Minimum area norm for retrofitting is 500 acre; for redevelopment, 50 acre; and for greenfield projects, 250 acre. This will be 50 per cent for northeastern and Himalayan states.
  • Benchmarks to be achieved: 10 per cent of energy needs to be met from renewable sources, 80 per cent of building construction to be green and 35 per cent of housing in greenfield projects for economically weaker sections.
  • Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) to be set up for implementation of smart city plans with 50:50 equity of states and urban local bodies.
  • An Inter-Departmental Task Force to be set up to coordinate all aspects of smart city development.

AMRUT

  • No projects without availability of land; all necessary clearances shall be included in the Mission by states or union territories.
  • States shall transfer funds to urban local bodies (ULBs) within seven days of transfer by Central Government and no diversion of funds; failing this, penal interest would be charged besides other adverse action by the Centre.
  • Action plans should provide for O&M costs for assets created for at least five years based on user charges.
  • Instead of penalising states or ULBs for non-implementation of reforms by linking fund release with progress on reforms resulting in delays, the guidelines now provide for incentivising reforms by earmarking 10 per cent of annual allocation for good performers at the end of each year.
  • For water supply, sewerage, septage, storm-water drains and urban transport, the Centre´s share is to be in the range of 1/3 of project cost to 50 per cent; states to mobilise the balance with their own share being not less than 20 per cent.
  • A set of 11 reforms to be implemented in four years, including: Promoting e-governance; improving collection of various taxes; fee and user charges; augmenting double-entry accounting; constitution and professionalising of municipal cadre; preparation of GIS-based master plans, devolution of funds and functionaries to urban local bodies, review of building bylaws; setting up financial intermediaries for pooling and disbursement of resources; credit rating of ULBs; energy and water audit; and achieving Swachh Bharat milestones.
  • Source: Ministry of Urban Development

Smart Building Score
Smart cities embraces so many factors that include smart mobility, smart water and waste management, smart economy, smart governance, smart people, smart living and smart buildings. With the role of buildings being redefined from a static environment to a more dynamic and interactive space, Honeywell and EY have developed a Smart Building Score. This is a universal framework for quick, comprehensive, and easy assessment of any building in terms of its smartness. Fifteen smart elements in each building are rated on their green, safe and productive outcomes, based on predefined parameters of capability, coverage and uptime. The score is an average of three outcomes: Green, Safe and Productivity. The Honeywell Smart Building Score was applied for the first time in over 2,000 buildings across eight Indian cities to validate the tool, and assess a building´s smartness. The survey covered 10 key building verticals: Airports, hotels, hospitals, private offices, retail, surface transport, government offices, education and social spaces, public services, and residential. These buildings are located in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune.
(For the key findings of the survey, log on to www.ConstructionWorld.in/webx)

Shaping up Bhendi Bazaar the Smart Way

Steeped in history and culture, Bhendi Bazaar, a 150-year-old area in Mumbai, is at a point of appalling urban decay. There was an urgent need for a makeover; the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) stepped forward to provide this through a cluster redevelopment scheme. The ambitious redevelopment project comprises 16.5 acre, has 280 CS nos. decrepit buildings, 3,200 families and 1,250 shops. Abbas Master, CEO, SBUT, tells us more.

Smart features

  • Well-planned and maintained residential and commercial transit facilities providing a ´glimpse of the future´ with the promise of safe, secure and healthy living.
  • Project area to have its own environment-friendly and efficient sewage treatment plant, solar panels, rainwater harvesting and well-planned garbage handling and disposal system.
  • Building alignment with gradually increasing building height to ensure ample natural light and sea breeze.
  • More space will be available with the addition of open areas, green spaces, play and recreational areas.
  • Wide roads to replace narrow and congested lanes to accommodate tree-lined footpaths.

India´s New Destination: Naya Raipur

The master plan is from 2009 to 2031 and Phase I is nearing completion. Almost 8,000 hectare have been acquired; 126 km of roads are almost done; and sewerage, water supply, electricity, around 10,000 houses in the private and government sectors, and stadiums, hospitals, and educational institutions are under construction. N Baijendra Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister, Housing & Environment, Government of Chhattisgarh, Raipur and Chairman, Naya Raipur Development Authority, tells us more.

Smart features

  • Security, traffic and water management, electricity and billing IT-enabled.
  • Enabled for operation and maintenance of water supply, electrical distribution and sewerage; solid waste management; state management; various approvals of building plans and user charges; utility services; property tax; online interaction with government.
  • Online surveillance system includes traffic, signalling, policing, safety management and transport; in case of congestion in an area, traffic is automatically diverted.
  • Completely Wi-Fi enabled.

Opportunities

  • Final tendering where companies to bring all the solutions together being sought; not a single tender - various combinations to get the best solution.
  • Surveillance for traffic, police management, safety and keeping track of state management, which includes keeping track of land, taxes and utilities including solid waste management and billing.
  • Houses, roads, business centres, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure in the PPP model.

Developing Smart Solutions to Address Challenges
KEY ISSUES POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
Financial Challenges
Developing a new or greenfi eld smart
city with a target population of 5-10 lakh
is likely to require fi nancial investment
ranging between Rs. 75,000 and
Rs. 150,000 crore and may require
eight to ten years for implementation.
For new cities, a large part of the initial investments may be recovered through sale of land and/or commercial and residential real estate. Suitable land pooling options and other related mechanisms (like higher fl oor-area ratio or fl oor-space index) need to be considered for this purpose.
Suitable fi nancing options like BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) may be considered to stagger the initial requirement.
Most ULBs are not fi nancially selfsustainable
and tariff levels fi xed by them
to provide services often do not mirror
the cost of supplying the same. Even if
additional investments are recovered in a
phased manner, inadequate cost recovery
will lead to continued fi nancial losses.
Tariff structure needs to be redesigned to enable cost recovery through some level of cross-subsidisation.
Initial investment cost for ICT-related pplications, which are anyway signifi cantly lower than associated network-level infrastructure (pipeline extensions, for example), can be reduced and recovered in a phased manner by adopting a cloud-based scalable model, with cost recovery being transaction-based.
Technical Capacity Constraints
Most ULBs have limited technical capacity to ensure timely and costeffective implementation and subsequent operations and maintenance owing to limited recruitment over a number of years along with inability of the ULBs to attract
best of talent at market competitive compensation rate.
Leverage private partnership and outsourcing arrangements for both implementation and operations and maintenance with output-based contracts.
Opt for a cloud-based model or architecture for implementation of ICT as it results in the operations and maintenance responsibility being taken over by private vendors.
Institutional Capacity
Successful implementation of smart city solutions need effective horizontal and vertical coordination between various institutions involving institutions providing various municipal amenities as well as effective coordination between the Central Government (MoUD), state government as well as local government agencies on various issues related to fi nancing, sharing of best practices and sharing of service delivery processes. Develop a tripartite framework as part of which local government is provided access to defi ned fi nancial and technical support in lieu of undertaking specifi c governance reforms and setting up requisite institutional mechanisms like a Central Control Room with representation from all agencies, having a common database for sharing of data, etc.
Source: Deloitte

State/Union Territories No of cities
that can be
nominated for
development as
smart cities
AMRUT
cities
identifi ed
so far*
A&N Islands 1 1
Andhra Pradesh 3 31
Arunachal Pradesh 1 1
Assam 1 7
Bihar 3 27
Chandigarh 1 1
Chhattisgarh 2 10
Daman & Diu 1 1
Dadra & Nagar Haveli 1 1
Delhi 1 1
Goa 1 3
Gujarat 6 31
Haryana 2 19
Himachal Pradesh 1 1
J&K 1 3
Jharkhand 1 11
Karnataka 6 27
Kerala 1 18
Lakshadweep 1 1
Madhya Pradesh 7 33
Maharashtra 10 37
Manipur 1 1
Meghalaya 1 1
Mizoram 1 1
Nagaland 1 2
Odisha 2 9
Puducherry 1 1
Punjab 3 17
Rajasthan 4 30
Sikkim 1 1
Tamil Nadu 12 33
Telangana 2 15
Tripura 1 1
Uttar Pradesh 13 64
Uttarakhand 1 7
West Bengal 4 28
Total 100 476
Source: Ministry of Urban Development

Managing the high level of urbanisation has made it imperative for the government to resort to smart concepts and solutions. For India, this has resulted in the identification and planning of 100 smart cities. With urbanisation at its peak in India, a challenge is a great way for cities to get smart - quite literally. On the premise that a bit of competition never hurt anybody, the Smart Cities mission launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month, along with the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), called for the selection of potential candidates based on a two-stage competition, the ´City Challenge´. Endorsing the need for such a competition among states to ensure efficient planning and economic sustainability, Pratap Padode, Founder-Director, Smart Cities Council India, says, ¨The Smart Cities mission and AMRUT are likely to infuse a total of Rs 400,000 crore, once integrated with other missions like Digital India, Swachh Bharat, Housing for All, etc.¨ Currently, while 30 per cent of the Indian population resides in urban centres, these centres contribute around 65 per cent to the national GDP, states a recent Deloitte report. It is further projected that urban India will contribute about 75 per cent of the national GDP in the next 15 to 20 years while another 300 million people get added to the existing 300 million dwelling in urban centres. The speed of urbanisation will exert immense pressure on infrastructure, finance, natural resources and quality of life. To relieve some of this pressure, it is imperative for the government to resort to smart concepts and solutions. This, clearly, is one of the drivers of the 100 smart cities concept. ¨The mission will attract huge investments from international companies and even the private sector, which has been shying away from public-private participation,¨ adds Padode. Identifying cities The Ministry of Urban Development defines a smart city with three vital focus areas: Basic infrastructure; the use of ´smart´ solutions to make infrastructure and services better; and reliance on area-based development. So, which could these cities be? ¨At present, only Lavasa near Pune can be classified as a smart city. Other cities (such as Mumbai and Delhi) are still in the process of upgrading their systems and could qualify as smart in the future,¨ says Kanwaljeet Singh, Business Development, Energy and Smart Cities, Schneider Electric India. ¨Varanasi, Allahabad, Gurgaon and Vizag also stand out as potential smart city candidates in the country.¨ Recently, Cisco has laid down plans to provide networking infrastructure for smart city projects in Navi Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur and Lucknow. This includes services such as street lighting, waste management, and communication through the command-and-control centre or integrated operations centre. ¨We have been talking to these cities about the best way to do this, following which they will come up with their procurement procedures,¨ says Aamer Azeemi, Managing Director, Cisco, adding that the company is in discussion with many cities. ¨We have done the complete smart city planning for four cities in the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor,¨ he shares. These include the greenfield cities of Dholera Special Investment Region in Gujarat, Shendra-Bidkin Mega Industrial Park in Maharashtra, Manesar Bawal Investment Region in Haryana and Khushkhera Bhiwadi Neemrana Investment Region in Rajasthan. Further, an ambitious plan is being laid by the government to build one smart city each at the country´s 12 major ports, amounting to a total investment of about Rs 50,000 crore. Moreover, with Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai to be turned into a smart business hub, five more such smart hubs are being planned in the city. Tech-play Technology, which is essential to deliver civic services efficiently, lies at the heart of this transformation. It enables the integration of government departments, planning processes, information from various sources, and the creation of an intelligent and interconnected network of infrastructure services. ¨All this means influx of data and terabytes,¨ says Rajiv Saxena, Director-Sales, India Public Sector, Commercial and SAARC, NetApp India Pvt Ltd. ¨To manage staggering amounts of structured and unstructured data, the government needs to put in place robust storage architecture to help departments organise data on the basis of sensitivity of information, importance and accessibility.¨ In the context of smart cities, where virtually everything involves data, the significance of storage is immense. ¨A storage system can help ensure non-disruptive access to data, which is critical for government functions,¨ says Philips Ranjit, Director-Cloud Business, NetApp India Pvt Ltd. ¨As we progress further into implementing plans for smart cities, more decision-makers will realise the need to leverage multiple Cloud solutions and architectures (including hybrid Clouds) to meet their dynamic business and technology challenges.¨ The hybrid Cloud model will allow agencies to maintain control of data while maximising Cloud computing economics such as money saving through shared services, improved security, robust infrastructure and operational efficiencies. Highlighting IT as a key enabler of smart cities, Lux Rao, CTO & Leader, HP Future Cities, says, ¨Cities that are future-ready will ride on a robust IT framework. It is a key enabler and will ensure the whole gamut of citizen engagement, ranging from delivery of services, information for all and ongoing dialogue with citizens to monitoring the metrics.¨ Undoubtedly, ICT will be the difference between an ordinary city and a smart one. Dr Sumit D Chowdhury, Founder, Gaia Smart Cities, says, ¨We anticipate that anywhere between 5 per cent and 15 per cent of the project cost should be kept aside for pure hardware, network and software technologies, and another 5 per cent for the analysis and use of the data in everyday operations, which will be part of the business.¨ Utilities and solutions There are two components to any smart city: Physical infrastructure and software. Every city, from ancient times to now, has required roads, water, power, parks, security, transportation, shopping, food production, and services of different types for its citizens. What has changed is that all these facilities can now be designed using analysis of data (See infographics on page 56). Therefore, you get smarter roads where traffic lights are coordinated with the amount of traffic and smarter water by measuring the amount of water being consumed and then planning how much to buy, how much to clean and purify, and how much to store and distribute. While smarter power and the fine granular measurement can improve load factors and reduce electricity cost, smarter grids for electricity distribution improve the resiliency of power networks. Additionally, smarter transportation, agriculture and services can be possible by backing every decision with data collection and analytics. This considered, the benefits building information modelling (BIM) offers at various stage are proven. ¨It can play a significant role to make smart cities a success,¨ affirms Sonali Dhopte, Director, Excelize. She highlights some goals for BIM adoption or implementation in smart cities: At the design stage: Visualisation of the project leads to reduction in coordination time; reduction in time by design changes; accuracy in data used for construction as BIM lets us build virtually before building physically. At construction stage: Reduction in rework at site owing to clash detection and resolution; accuracy of Bill of Quantities (BOQ) and consequently material procurement; delay monitoring through 4D construction simulation; availability of an as-built model for facility management. At maintenance stage: Integration of design data with maintenance data; impact of any updates or renovations can be assessed against the data available in the BIM model. Traffic is a persistent concern in cities that require a radical approach. In this regard, Ashwin Natarajan, Founder & CEO, SMIDER, tells us, SMIDER is a device built on proprietary technology that enables traffic management authorities to reduce congestion times by routing traffic into alternate routes or allows for an increase in lanes of the existing road network to smooth the flow of traffic. As the device can be installed as a standalone unit on a divider or on the complete length of the divider, it can work to route traffic or increase road capacity without building expensive flyovers or underpasses.¨ Internet of Things (IoT) is all about using sensors to capture data, and leveraging on data analytics to bring about the efficiency or smartness. And Mayank Manish, CEO, Infrovate Consulting and Solutions Pvt Ltd, says that Infrovate has those sensors and the technology. He says that the company´s expertise lies in sustainable and secure RFID-based offerings and their intelligent implementation. ¨RFID is a type of a sensor and we build on that capability of sensors - build the data analytics platform where data is captured by the sensors and allow the cities to take smart decisions - whichever areas these are used in.¨ How does this help? It makes the eco-system become more efficient, controlled, secure and of course makes the setup smarter! Energy savings and smarter control of lighting is another crucial factor. ¨This has opened a new window of opportunities in street, high-mast lighting and all high-power lighting applications,¨ says Rahul Sapre, CEO, Elle Green Lighting. ¨The lights we manufacture have state-of-the-art technology to enable users to control them remotely and ensure power savings for years of operations.¨ As interactive features are the key to make any product usable in smart applications, this will help users reduce cost while gaining operational control. Greenfield vs. retrofitting Establishing greenfield smart cities is a long-term plan and the effect will be felt only in the next 20 years. However in India, a huge opportunity also lies in retrofitting existing cities - brownfield cities - and connecting them for the first time to the information grid. When asked to choose between the two, Azeemi answers, ¨India needs a mix of both.¨ He adds that greenfield projects are fairly straightforward as you don´t have legacy challenges. But one cannot build a whole lot of greenfield projects because of various issues, including availability of land. He also agrees that the bigger challenge and opportunity is in making existing cities smart as the bulk of the population today lives in them. Sharing her take, Sandhya Godey, Principal Consultant, Phoenix IT Solutions Pvt Ltd, says, ¨Greenfield projects are easier than retrofitting because a greenfield smart city can be developed as per what you want, unlike retrofitting where compromises need to be made considering city limitations.¨ However, she is confident that both opportunities will yield good results. We couldn´t agree more. CW´s recommendations All considered, while challenges of execution still exist in major infrastructure projects in India, the smart cities concept is a promising one that has the support of the government and all stakeholders. With the government releasing guidelines seeking better execution of projects (see guidelines on page 50), CW spoke to leading stakeholders to come up with suggestions to make smart cities a success in India: The Prime Minister and Ministry of Urban Development can consider appointing a cabinet-level managing director and chief information officer (CIO) for smart cities with executive powers like the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). This CIO needs to appoint another 20-30 state level CIOs to work with one or more states for the coordination of data, systems and processes across all projects. This would help standardise systems, processes, hardware and software across various verticals. The industry has been trying to push through the selection of a consortium-based approach rather than the standard L1-based procurement, which has its challenges. Once experienced people from across the world gather with complementary skill sets, the chances of success are higher than going by the lowest quote. Here specifications are the key to quality bids. For foreign investors to come in, we need proactive and fast dispute resolution and single-window clearance for ease of business. For timely completion of projects, all clearances should use online processes and be cleared in a time-bound manner. If our taxes are in line with our competitors like Singapore, Dubai and Malaysia, and if the legal system does not take too long, global finances will flow. Competition is good but everyone should work together on a common agenda. Despite people saying there is no money, many are willing to do things out of their own pocket. We need local talent and the need to create awareness among them. A mandatory rule without clarity in most cases leads to rebellious reactions. Give start-ups equal opportunities to contribute to the development of smart cities. Rather than just looking at experience, ideas should be analysed in terms of true benefits, and the? ?government should give new entrepreneurs a platform to serve the nation. ICT will be the difference between an ordinary and smart city. One smart city to be built in each of India´s 12 major port cities. Huge opportunity: Retrofitting existing cities and connecting them for the first time to the information grid. ¨States have been allotted with the number of cities that can be made smart.¨ Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu shares a brief on schemes for both Smart Cities and AMRUT with CW. ¨Prior to launching the schemes, we have worked out the details, guidelines have been prepared, states have been taken into confidence, discussions have been held with various stakeholders and then it has received approval from the Cabinet. There will be competition across the country in the form of a city ´challenge´ system, with guidelines for how many cities a state can propose as well. The proposed city will be assessed on its capacity, population, revenue, employment ratio, sanitation, solid waste management, provision for drinking water, electricity, transportation, education and other existing facilities along with credit ratings. Keeping all this in mind, especially the population, the states have been allotted with the number of cities that can be made smart. While a total of 100 cities are being planned, the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh have more cities considering their urban population. Also, countries like the US, Japan and France have come forward to give technical support. Other countries are also showing interest with regard to joining smart cities projects through PPP. We are going to involve them in a big way because smart cities require huge investment, which will come from internal as well as external sources.¨ Venkaiah Naidu Union Urban Development Minister South India´s SmartCity Kochi SmartCity Kochi´s first phase is in progress and nearing completion. The project plan takes into account economic, social and environmental sustainability and seeks to create over 90,000 direct jobs by 2020. Baju George, Managing Director-Operations, SmartCity, SmartCity Kochi, tells us more. Smart features Power generation from non-conventional energy sources, rainwater harvesting, zero-waste discharge, reuse of grey water. Smart Digital Plan will exploit technology to offer structured living conditions; operations centre will monitor data addressing safety, security, building operations and maintenance, water and waste management, traffic flow and transit services. A co-development model to bring in real-estate developers to jointly build the township; current infrastructure cost is Rs.300 crore. Opportunities  Need for commute infrastructure: Metro, waterways and other public and private transport. Reliance on principle of self-sustenance - from arranging water through the nearby river and building substations and solar power plants to storm-water drainage systems; these are already in progress. Smart governance through efficient monitoring and control of energy and utility consumption, security, fire, water, road access, transportation and traffic, etc. Narendra Modi´s GIFT to India GIFT city, spread over 886 acre, has a total built-up area of about 62 million sq ft, of which Phase-I includes 10 million sq ft, Phase-II 22 million sq ft and Phase-III 30 million sq ft till 2020-22. Phase-I of the infrastructure rollout is on the verge of completion. Nilesh Purey, Head-ICT, GIFT City, tells us more. Smart features 7 + 8 m ventilated and secure ´utility tunnel´ below the city touches every building. DCS (district cooling solution) to supply chilled air to buildings. Vacuum chute-based automatic waste collection system collects waste at every level. Uninterrupted power supply via electrical distribution system. ICT to manage and monitor infrastructure. GIFT City Urban Development Authority has designed and issued common IBMS guidelines for all developers. Opportunities Transport-oriented; BRTS and Metro connectivity. Phase-I rollout of raw water pumping station and water treatment plant done; construction of master reservoir underway. Commissioning of 66 KVA substation complete; feasibility study to commission gas-based captive power plant. Will require participation for storm-water drainage in second and third phase of infrastructure development. Mobile app for citizens to access services, lodge complaints, pay bills, etc. Mission-wise guidelines seeking better execution of projects for Smart Cities and AMRUT The Central Government has radically overhauled the operational guidelines for implementation of Smart Cities and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT). SMART CITIES MISSION Central assistance to be used only for infrastructure projects with larger public benefit. Minimum area norm for retrofitting is 500 acre; for redevelopment, 50 acre; and for greenfield projects, 250 acre. This will be 50 per cent for northeastern and Himalayan states. Benchmarks to be achieved: 10 per cent of energy needs to be met from renewable sources, 80 per cent of building construction to be green and 35 per cent of housing in greenfield projects for economically weaker sections. Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) to be set up for implementation of smart city plans with 50:50 equity of states and urban local bodies. An Inter-Departmental Task Force to be set up to coordinate all aspects of smart city development. AMRUT No projects without availability of land; all necessary clearances shall be included in the Mission by states or union territories. States shall transfer funds to urban local bodies (ULBs) within seven days of transfer by Central Government and no diversion of funds; failing this, penal interest would be charged besides other adverse action by the Centre. Action plans should provide for O&M costs for assets created for at least five years based on user charges. Instead of penalising states or ULBs for non-implementation of reforms by linking fund release with progress on reforms resulting in delays, the guidelines now provide for incentivising reforms by earmarking 10 per cent of annual allocation for good performers at the end of each year. For water supply, sewerage, septage, storm-water drains and urban transport, the Centre´s share is to be in the range of 1/3 of project cost to 50 per cent; states to mobilise the balance with their own share being not less than 20 per cent. A set of 11 reforms to be implemented in four years, including: Promoting e-governance; improving collection of various taxes; fee and user charges; augmenting double-entry accounting; constitution and professionalising of municipal cadre; preparation of GIS-based master plans, devolution of funds and functionaries to urban local bodies, review of building bylaws; setting up financial intermediaries for pooling and disbursement of resources; credit rating of ULBs; energy and water audit; and achieving Swachh Bharat milestones. Source: Ministry of Urban Development Smart Building Score Smart cities embraces so many factors that include smart mobility, smart water and waste management, smart economy, smart governance, smart people, smart living and smart buildings. With the role of buildings being redefined from a static environment to a more dynamic and interactive space, Honeywell and EY have developed a Smart Building Score. This is a universal framework for quick, comprehensive, and easy assessment of any building in terms of its smartness. Fifteen smart elements in each building are rated on their green, safe and productive outcomes, based on predefined parameters of capability, coverage and uptime. The score is an average of three outcomes: Green, Safe and Productivity. The Honeywell Smart Building Score was applied for the first time in over 2,000 buildings across eight Indian cities to validate the tool, and assess a building´s smartness. The survey covered 10 key building verticals: Airports, hotels, hospitals, private offices, retail, surface transport, government offices, education and social spaces, public services, and residential. These buildings are located in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune. (For the key findings of the survey, log on to www.ConstructionWorld.in/webx) Shaping up Bhendi Bazaar the Smart Way Steeped in history and culture, Bhendi Bazaar, a 150-year-old area in Mumbai, is at a point of appalling urban decay. There was an urgent need for a makeover; the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT) stepped forward to provide this through a cluster redevelopment scheme. The ambitious redevelopment project comprises 16.5 acre, has 280 CS nos. decrepit buildings, 3,200 families and 1,250 shops. Abbas Master, CEO, SBUT, tells us more. Smart features Well-planned and maintained residential and commercial transit facilities providing a ´glimpse of the future´ with the promise of safe, secure and healthy living. Project area to have its own environment-friendly and efficient sewage treatment plant, solar panels, rainwater harvesting and well-planned garbage handling and disposal system. Building alignment with gradually increasing building height to ensure ample natural light and sea breeze. More space will be available with the addition of open areas, green spaces, play and recreational areas. Wide roads to replace narrow and congested lanes to accommodate tree-lined footpaths. India´s New Destination: Naya Raipur The master plan is from 2009 to 2031 and Phase I is nearing completion. Almost 8,000 hectare have been acquired; 126 km of roads are almost done; and sewerage, water supply, electricity, around 10,000 houses in the private and government sectors, and stadiums, hospitals, and educational institutions are under construction. N Baijendra Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister, Housing & Environment, Government of Chhattisgarh, Raipur and Chairman, Naya Raipur Development Authority, tells us more. Smart features Security, traffic and water management, electricity and billing IT-enabled. Enabled for operation and maintenance of water supply, electrical distribution and sewerage; solid waste management; state management; various approvals of building plans and user charges; utility services; property tax; online interaction with government. Online surveillance system includes traffic, signalling, policing, safety management and transport; in case of congestion in an area, traffic is automatically diverted. Completely Wi-Fi enabled. Opportunities Final tendering where companies to bring all the solutions together being sought; not a single tender - various combinations to get the best solution. Surveillance for traffic, police management, safety and keeping track of state management, which includes keeping track of land, taxes and utilities including solid waste management and billing. Houses, roads, business centres, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure in the PPP model. Developing Smart Solutions to Address Challenges KEY ISSUES POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS Financial Challenges Developing a new or greenfi eld smart city with a target population of 5-10 lakh is likely to require fi nancial investment ranging between Rs. 75,000 and Rs. 150,000 crore and may require eight to ten years for implementation. For new cities, a large part of the initial investments may be recovered through sale of land and/or commercial and residential real estate. Suitable land pooling options and other related mechanisms (like higher fl oor-area ratio or fl oor-space index) need to be considered for this purpose. Suitable fi nancing options like BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) may be considered to stagger the initial requirement. Most ULBs are not fi nancially selfsustainable and tariff levels fi xed by them to provide services often do not mirror the cost of supplying the same. Even if additional investments are recovered in a phased manner, inadequate cost recovery will lead to continued fi nancial losses. Tariff structure needs to be redesigned to enable cost recovery through some level of cross-subsidisation. Initial investment cost for ICT-related pplications, which are anyway signifi cantly lower than associated network-level infrastructure (pipeline extensions, for example), can be reduced and recovered in a phased manner by adopting a cloud-based scalable model, with cost recovery being transaction-based. Technical Capacity Constraints Most ULBs have limited technical capacity to ensure timely and costeffective implementation and subsequent operations and maintenance owing to limited recruitment over a number of years along with inability of the ULBs to attract best of talent at market competitive compensation rate. Leverage private partnership and outsourcing arrangements for both implementation and operations and maintenance with output-based contracts. Opt for a cloud-based model or architecture for implementation of ICT as it results in the operations and maintenance responsibility being taken over by private vendors. Institutional Capacity Successful implementation of smart city solutions need effective horizontal and vertical coordination between various institutions involving institutions providing various municipal amenities as well as effective coordination between the Central Government (MoUD), state government as well as local government agencies on various issues related to fi nancing, sharing of best practices and sharing of service delivery processes. Develop a tripartite framework as part of which local government is provided access to defi ned fi nancial and technical support in lieu of undertaking specifi c governance reforms and setting up requisite institutional mechanisms like a Central Control Room with representation from all agencies, having a common database for sharing of data, etc. Source: Deloitte State/Union Territories No of cities that can be nominated for development as smart cities AMRUT cities identifi ed so far* A&N Islands 1 1 Andhra Pradesh 3 31 Arunachal Pradesh 1 1 Assam 1 7 Bihar 3 27 Chandigarh 1 1 Chhattisgarh 2 10 Daman & Diu 1 1 Dadra & Nagar Haveli 1 1 Delhi 1 1 Goa 1 3 Gujarat 6 31 Haryana 2 19 Himachal Pradesh 1 1 J&K 1 3 Jharkhand 1 11 Karnataka 6 27 Kerala 1 18 Lakshadweep 1 1 Madhya Pradesh 7 33 Maharashtra 10 37 Manipur 1 1 Meghalaya 1 1 Mizoram 1 1 Nagaland 1 2 Odisha 2 9 Puducherry 1 1 Punjab 3 17 Rajasthan 4 30 Sikkim 1 1 Tamil Nadu 12 33 Telangana 2 15 Tripura 1 1 Uttar Pradesh 13 64 Uttarakhand 1 7 West Bengal 4 28 Total 100 476 Source: Ministry of Urban Development

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