We will build 100 smart cities equipped with high -tech communication capabilities, Narendra Modi had tronado, one month after assuming the position of Prime Minister on May 26, 2014.
“The cities in the past were built in ribraries,” said Modi. “They are now built along the roads. But in the future, they will be based on the availability of next generation fiber optic and infrastructure networks.”
He announced an investment of $ 1.2 billion during the following year in what was said to be the world’s largest infrastructure project, with more funds for coming from private sources and abroad.
In his budget speech, the Minister of Finance of Modes, Arun Jaitley, great details. Most of these new cities would be satellite cities in large cities, he said, and announced incentives for foreign investors.
Those were the days when Modi presented attractive plans that the media moved without scrutiny. ‘Smart Cities’ was acclaimed as the best ways visions for modern India. For the middle classes, Modi became a hero and his ‘smart cities’ the potential centers of professional opportunities.
Real estate investors, foreign suppliers and global technology and IT companies saw more commercial opportunities in the Smart Cities mission than in the Make-Inia project, another failed initiative. In mid -2015, 14 countries, including France, USA, China, Sweden, Israel, Germany, Brazil and Singapore, had expressed interest. They were looking for large investments in smart cities. A boxes from international institutions, such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the USAID, offered support. PricewaterhouseCoopers, McKinsey, Lea Associates and Bosch were the empanados consultants. Private companies were offered capital participation and the right to impose user positions.
The contractors were salivating the perspectives of a 7 Lakh-KM broadband cable to link the 2.5 Lakh villages with accompanying facilities such as Wi-Fi and equipment boxes. It was a great cake. France Such received a RS market 3.3 billion rupees for ‘Integrated Solutions’ and ‘Aggregate Securities Systems’.
Then, suddenly, a silence defiin fell everywhere. Private and foreign investors were not arriving, their investments do not match their initial interest. The financial burden for the government would be huge. The vid has to someone in the government, the rumor is Arun Jaitley, managed to convince Mod Citing the experience of other countries, they argued that technology was always changing and that today’s Wi -Fi could be replaced by a better system. Therefore, I would need a constant update to keep the ‘smart’ cities. Politician, the ruling party could soon be accused of waste resources in elitist and projects, while large sections lived in marginal neighborhoods.
Finally, the government decided to retain the nomenclature but with a changed objective. The mission of smart cities would be limited to renewing and modernizing existing cities and providing facilities such as housing, clean water, energy and transport. All schemes would be administered by high -sound special -purpose vehicles (SPV), which are private companies or private public participation companies.
The Smart Borred Borred cities mission of the National Renewal Mission Jawaharlal Nehru de Manmohan Singh (Jnnurm) and its four sub-mission. Modi’s mission also overlaps the existing atal mission for rejuvenation and urban transformation (AMRUT), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY-U), the National Urban Learning Platform (NLUP) and housing for 2022.
Originally, the Smart Cities mission was scheduled to conclude its current phase by 2020, but extensions were granted due to implementation obstacles. Finally, the Government has decided to finish it before March 31, 2025.
This leaves many unanswered questions. Does the government really believe that all the objectives of the mission, “central infrastructure, a clean environment and intelligent solutions” have been achieved? If not, why has you left the leg in the middle of the current? Will it be relived after reviewing the inconveniences and with appropriation corrective?
Like other modi schemes, mission defects date back to impulsive ads made without work on land. The first victim was ‘new’. Suddenly, the word ‘new’, used in the original version to descend to cities, disappeared from all official records. Foreign media, however, continued to use it.
The end without ceremonies of the mission of intelligent cities has left a trace of dislocation, loss of associated jobs and uncertainties. The SPVS, which were managing the projects, the integrated command and control center, and mission monitoring, have already begun to fire the staff. The Uttar Pradesh government has reduced its operation and will only retain the minimum personnel required by virtue of the Companies Law. In addition, there is a lot of confusion about the future of incomplete schemes.
The mission suffers from several conceptual deities. Unlike developed countries, there is no compact definition of an intelligent city in India or the programs it needs. In developed economies, there are already minimal facilities, which allows them to concentrate on total digitalization and high -tech facilities. In India, the emphasis should be to provide essential elements such as food, housing, energy and transport.
But the mission of smart cities was modified the first days as Prime Minister when he was presenting India as a world power and himself as his strong leader. The primary priority to project an image of Vishwaguru reduced the definition of ‘intelligent’ in a curious mixture of old schemes and dreams of high technology. A foreign mission study described this as an “umbrella.” In the process, the mission became another name for the same old water programs, electricity supply, housing, health, transport, solid waste management, security, electronic government and digitalization.
According to official statements, there are about 75 studies and analysis on mission performance. Most of these are aligned with the official line. Really critical analyzes are few or come from abroad, with foreign universities, analysts and media that find several structuralils in the conceptualization and implementation of the mission.
Write in The guardian In 2015, Shruti Ravindran predicted that the mission, as was at that time, would end up creating ‘social apartheid’.
A study of the Aurengabad Smart City Plan denounced the appointment of large consulting firms as project management consultants (PMC). “But there is little responsibility for the solution that the PMC sacrificed … the closest companies are a better option,” he said.
Another independent study of Shimla’s intelligent city of Tikender Singh Panwar, a member of the Kerala Urban Commission, found that local bodies had their legs by elite spv on the assumption that private management is more efficient. He discovered that RS 2 million rupees were wasted in flower pots.
Look at the iony. We have a lot of data on urban planning and the Smart Cities mission: Smart City Dashboard, National Urban Learning Platform (Zero), Data Smart Cities Portal, Urban Data Exchange (Iudx) and Smart Code. However, the researchers discovered that there were a wall of stagnant information at the micro level that hindered a detailed analysis.
(P. Raman is a veteran journalist. Courtesy: The India Cable: A Premium Bulletin by The Wire & Galileo Ideas. The Wire is a website of news and non -profit opinion.