Objective
It aims to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its
citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions.
It aims to focus on sustainable and inclusive development and to set examples that can be replicated both within and outside the Smart City, catalysing the creation of similar Smart Cities in various regions and parts of the country.
To improve the ease of living particularly for poor, women, elderly and differently abled
An important first step would be to build safeguards to protect the democratic nature of governance structures. A robust governance structure, which allows for sharing of power and financial resources between urban local bodies and the private sector stakeholders, would go a long way towards reducing fears.
The VCF policy framework (a principle that states that people benefiting from public investments in infrastructure should pay for it like land value tax, fee for changing land use, betterment levy, development charges, transfer of development rights, and land pooling systems) was introduced by the Ministry of Urban Development recently. Besides this, tapping of municipal bonds can meet the financial shortages.
Cues can be taken from successful models like Pune Municipal Body (Municipal bonds), Karnataka (for its methods to fund its mass transit projects) and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (betterment levy) to finance infrastructure projects.
Best international practices and principles of the recently concluded UN URBAN AGENDA of the Habitat conference can be incorporated to meet SDG goals.
Similarly, at the planning stage itself, cities must seek convergence in the SCM with AMRUT, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), Digital India, Skill development, Housing for All, PMAY-Urban for better integration, coordination and inclusiveness.
Institutional and legal mechanisms for any repercussions with regard to social justice, equity and cyber safety also must be stitched on to the mission strategy for it to be truly smart.