A “smart city” project should look to upgrade the infrastructure in existing cities to enable better governance. Creating new cities with use of digital technology isn’t the only solution.

According to Arindam Guha, Senior Director, Deloitte Touche Tomatsu, the cost and time required for setting up a new (smart) city is “significantly on the higher side”.

Smart city, he maintained, is defined by a range of parameters such as governance; better living amenities; people; mobility; environment as well as livelihood opportunities. The Centre has recently proposed the setting up of 100 such smart cities over the next 10 years.

Citing the example of Gift city (or Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Co Ltd), Guha also said that the estimated outlay for it is around ₹75,000 crore to ₹100,000 crore, along with implementation time being around 10 years.

“We, (Deloitte) have suggested upgrade of existing city infrastructure as a part of the smart city project to the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD),” he told BusinessLine .

Phased roll-out Upgrade of existing cities too should be done in phases. What he suggests is a systematic roll-out of select services that are already ICT-backed.

For example, in Bangalore water monitoring systems are already deployed in some parts of the city.

Logically, then, the authorities should look at implementing this ICT-backed application wherever it is ready instead of waiting for 100 per cent pipeline coverage. One major point that should be kept in mind is actual integration of existing services with new ones. And, this is exactly where the MoUD can act as a facilitator to ensure fast-track implementation. According to Guha, adopting cloud-based ICT solutions should be simultaneously encouraged. These solutions would integrate network data with other sources to provide “intelligent responses” or smart solutions; like facilitating city traffic management; or disaster management mechanism during an accident and so on.

State governments and urban local bodies will subscribe to these solutions at a pre-determined price. And, maintenance (of ICT frame-work) can be outsourced. “However, there are some governance reforms that have to be brought in first,” he added.

As was the case with the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM), State governments and urban local bodies need to commit for governance reforms.

“These tripartite agreements should help remove uncertainties around implementation of a smart city. Such a mechanism would also bring standardisation,” Basu pointed out.

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