Paper looks at the current status of cities and urbanization, issues faced by urban sector and suggest strategies to make cities more smart and sustainable.

1. PLANNING GREEN SMART CITIES
* Jit Kumar Gupta
Introduction
Cities are known to be the most innovative and complex creation of human beings. They have
showcased the journey, achievements, rise and fall of homo-sapiens on this earth. Accordingly, they
have been integral part of human history. Cities have existed in the past and shall continue to exist,
define, script and showcase the unending story of human growth and development. The unending
journey undertaken by cities is now treading on a fast pace of development in a territory, which is both
unknown and difficult to define. Three major developments define the contemporary Urban world,
which have their genesis in growth in size, number and spread of human settlements; increase in the
proportion of population that lives in urban centres and transformation of the society based on large
proportion of population making urban centres as place of residence besides following a pattern of life
which has its origin and character in urban environment. Combination of these three major
developments has created a system which is both powerful, deep seated and self- reinforcing. It has
rapidly changed the spatial organization and economy, which has impacted both local and global
environment.
Cities, as economic and social system in space, dominate the global canvas not only in terms of
concentration of population but also concentration of Industry besides being principle centers of
economy and polity; large consumer markets and highly trained workforce. Accordingly, they
represent most viable and suitable places with significant, social and economic achievements. As
engines of economic growth, cities are known to be creators of wealth, generators of employment and
promoters of economy and prosperity. Cities have been centres of innovations and trade &
commerce. They have always attracted people in large number to its fold to provide them immense
opportunities of growth, achievement and development through skill and entrepreneurship. They also
offer optimum location for services and facilities, which require large population threshold and markets
for its operational efficiency. Despite housing large population at higher densities and adverse living
conditions, cities are known to offer opportunities and quality of life better than its rural counterparts.
Urbanization in India is known for its massiveness of population and spread. According to Census
2001, with level of urbanization standing at 27.7%, 278 million Indians lived in 5161 urban
agglomerations. This number increased to 377 million in 2011 with agglomerations also increasing to
7935 and level of urbanization going up to 31.1%. Last decade (2001-2011), will be known for two
reasons in the parlance of Indian demography. For the first time in the demographic history, Urban
India added more population (91 million) as compared to Rural India (90 million), putting India on the
fast trajectory of urbanization. Secondly, for the largest growth in the number of towns placed at
2774(from 5161 to 7935), with almost entire increase recorded in the category of census towns
(2532). Statutory towns increased by merely 242, accounting for only 9% of the increase in total
number of towns. Based on massive differential between urban and rural growth rate (2.1% against
0.7%), by 2030, out of projected population of 1.4 billion over 600 million people may be living in

2. urban areas and number of urban dwellers will share parity with rural population by 2050 AD. Next
four decades are likely to witness enormous growth in terms of numbers of urban centres, their size
and population. As per estimates made in World Urbanization Prospects –The 2014 Revision Report
of Department of Economic and Social Affairs , United Nations, India by 2030 will have 7 Metro cities
with population exceeding 10 million and 2 cities of population above 5 million. It is also estimated
that by 2050 AD number of Metro Cities will go beyond 100 and 10 million plus cities will be 9 with
Delhi becoming second most populated agglomeration in the world. In the given context urban
centres are likely to emerge as major settlements, housing large proportion of Indian population.
Urban India besides housing large population concentrated in a limited area, will also make sizeable
contribution to the national and global economy.
McKinsey Global Report-April,2010 titled ,’India Urban Awakening :Building Inclusive Cities- projects
the Urban scenario of India by 2030 in terms of :
 590 million Indians would be living in Urban India- twice the present US population
 70% of India’s GDP will be generated by cities
 80% Revenue will be contributed by cities
 Urban India will ensure 4 fold increase in per capita income
 5 times the number by which GDP would multiply
 Net increase in working age group in Urban India will be of the order of 270 million
 70% of new jobs (170 mil) will be generated in cities
 91 million urban households will join the elite middle class(income ranging between 2-10 lakhs per
annum)-- up from 22 million
 68 Cities will join the select band of Metropolises-Europe has only 35 metropolises at present.
 $ 1.2T capital will be needed to meet projected demand of infrastructure and services in Urban
India
 700-900 million square meters ofresidential/commercial space would be needed annually to meet
the needs of living, working, leisure, trade and commerce, industries, institutions etc- a new
Chicago to be created every year.
 2.5 billions Square meters ofroads would have to be paved , 20 times the space created during last
decade, to meet the travel needs of Urban India.
 7400km (350-400km/year) of metro would need to be constructed, 20 times metros created in last
decade, to meet the mass transportation needs in urban areas.
 200 million Rural Indians living close to top 70 cities of the country would benefit from the
prosperity, employment and wealth generated by Urban India.
 75% of urban India would be living in bottom segment with earnings placed at Rs 80 per day.
With highly positive correlation between urbanization and GDP, it can be safely visualized that
urban centres will be major drivers of Indian economy and story-writers of its growth and
development. This calls for critically and objectively looking at the urban centres in terms of their
pattern of growth and development and evolving strategies which make them more productive,
smart, efficient, healthy and sustainable.

3. ISSUES & OPTIONS
UN Habitat Report, State of World’s Cities 2008/2009- Harmonius Cities, defines the cities in their
basic character and growth pattern in terms of:
Cities contain both order and chaos. In them reside beauty and ugliness, virtue and vice. They can
bring out the best or the worst in humankind. They are the physical manifestation of history and
culture and incubators of innovations, industry, technology, entrepreneurship and creativity. Cities are
the materialization of humanity’s noblest ideas, ambitions and aspirations, but when not planned or
governed properly, can be the repository of society’s ills. Cities drive national economies by creating
wealth, enhancing social development and providing employment but they can also be the breeding
grounds for poverty, exclusion and environmental degradation.
Indian cities are no different from the global pattern defined above. Indian urbanization is
distinguished by dualities and contradictions where growth and development is marked by deprivation
and opulence. Despite showcasing distinct advantages and critical role, urban centres have not been
growing in a planned and rational manner. Emerging urban scenario on Indian canvas portrays large
number of slums over-shadowing the city growth; where slums and state-of-the-art buildings are
rubbing shoulders; where poverty and prosperity compete with one-another; where unplanned
development has emerged as the order of the day; where informal sector govern the growth and
development of cities and where basic amenities and services are eluding the majority of urban
residents. Majority of urban centres continue to face problems of acute housing shortage and rapid
uncontrolled growth resulting into haphazard expansion with sub-standard infrastructure, adversely
impacting the quality of life of majority of urban residents. The existing inadequacies have resulted
into inefficient traffic and transportation besides uncontrolled rapid growth and proliferation of informal
sector. Poverty and environment have emerged as the major issues and greatest threat to the urban
dynamism. In addition, urban centres are fast emerging as large consumers of non-renewal resources
and energy, adversely impacting the sustainability, both at local and global level. They are also
generating enormous amount of waste which is grossly polluting water, air and land based necessities
essential for human existence, growth, development and survival.
Looking at the entire context, Indian urbanization can be called a urbanization of poverty, urbanization
of population and urbanization of pollution, marked by large concentration of people in a small area.
Rapid growth of urban poverty; inadequate and inefficient state of service provision and delivery;
unregulated expansion and large scale pollution have emerged as some of the major concerns of
urban growth and development and have made the Indian cities most un-harmonious. The present
state of affairs of urban sector can be largely attributed to the way majority of urban centres are being
planned, developed, managed and governed. In the Indian context, urban planning mechanism
remains both diluted and confused.. Plans for the city are prepared by agencies which are not based
at the local level and have very little knowledge and understanding of the local problems, potential
and aspirations of the local people.. Most of these plans are prepared without adopting any
consultative process. Where adopted it is limited to few elites, with the result city plans excludes
majority of residents to whom the entire process is supposed to serve and promote. There is lack of
clarity as to who would be responsible for promoting planned development of urban centres. Despite

4. the fact 74th Amendment Act came into operation in 1992, still the subject matter of urban planning
has not been handed over to the urban local bodies. Being a state subject, each state has its own
agenda and pattern for urban planning. In most of the cases, there exist large number of state/ local
level agencies operating in the domain of urban planning at local level to the exclusion of urban local
bodies. In this scenario of duplication and overlap, planned growth of cities has emerged as the major
casualty. In addition to planning, urban governance is conspicuously ineffective and resultantly
inefficient. Most of the urban centres are being managed and developed by proxy. There exists no
single agency which has the power to direct the growth and development of the city in an integrated
manner. In the process ,urban areas are unable to meet the basic needs of shelter with the result
majority of urban poor which migrate to the cities have no option but to find/ create make shift shelter
while encroaching on every possible available derelict public/private land. The resultant rapid growth
of slums in the city indicates the exclusion of majority of urban residents from the formal process of
creating shelter. In addition, majority of cities are not in a position to provide basic and essential
services of water, sanitation, sullage, transportation, accessibility, power etc to majority of its
residents, creating adverse and inhuman living conditions and poor quality of life for urban poor. This
makes cities highly inefficient, unproductive, unsustainable, exclusive and discriminatory.
In order to leverage the inherent potential of urban centres and make city growth & development
rational and inclusive, it becomes critical that urban centres are effectively and efficiently governed
through a well defined and innovative system of planning and development. Effective, efficient and
people centric urban governance can be put on professional pedestal only through the mechanism of
participatory planned development. In this context, role of physical planners and planning profession
assumes critical importance to usher an era of high quality of urban planning and governance . For
promoting state of art planned development, Government of India has now come out with the agenda
of planning smart cities. Initially government plans to develop 100 cities in the country under the
scheme, for which dedicated funds to the tune of Rs 7000 crores have also been provided. Scheme
envisions developing one satellite town for each mega cities above 4 million population, all 1-4 million
population cities, all state capital cities including North- Eastern states, 20 cities which have
population in the range of 0.2 to 1 million and some cities of tourist and heritage importance. In
addition, some new towns would be developed in the Hills and Coastal areas with no population
threshold. In Search for appropriate solutions, paper looks at the various options and strategies
which can go into the making and planning of Smart Cities in the Indian context.
DEFINING SMART CITIES
Smart cities is not a new concept. The concept has been used globally in the past to promote cities
to make them more liveable, have major concerns for urban ills pertaining to energy consumption,
adverse quality of life, poor governance , poverty, transportation hiccups, environment, resources,
sustainability , lack of basic services, poor service delivery etc, using technology as the basic input.
Accordingly, the term has been defined differently by different people keeping in view the basic and
essential needs of the city and available technology.

5. A smart city is typically defined as’ an environmentally conscious city that uses information technology
to use its energy and other resources efficiently’. Another definition refers, Smart city in relation to
creation of a knowledge infrastructure. However, as per Caragliu and Nijkamp ; “ A city can be defined
as ‘smart’ when investments in human and social capital and traditional and modern communication
infrastructure fuel sustainable economic development and a high quality of life, with a wise
management of natural resources, through participatory action.’ Forbe identified eightkey aspects that
define a Smart City:‘smart governance, smart energy, smart building, smart mobility, smart
infrastructure, smart technology,smart healthcareand smart citizen’.
Looking at variousdefinitions, a city can be made Smart ifit is Governed Smartly, Planned Smartly,
DevelopedSmartly, Operated Smartly and Financed Smartly. This
can be achieved through a high degree ofcommitted leadership duly supported by a
well defined vision, a strategic approach, state ofart and innovative planning, high
degree ofplanning expertise, committedbureaucracy, quality development, quality
manpower, transparency in decision making, involving citizens and communities in
decision making and project planning/ implementation, optimizing resources,
creating partnerships , promoting accountability, ensuring efficient service delivery
and using technology(ICT) in day to day operations and strategic planning.
PROMOTING SMART GOVERNANCE
Urban Governance as an issue, as an option and as a strategy
to leverage the inherent potential of urban centres has been
well recognized and has assumed critical importance in the
context of ever growing role and importance of urban centres
in the overall economic growth, employment generation and
contribution such centres make to the national/state wealth.
Accordingly, good urban governance ranks high on the agenda of promoting smart cities. With urban
centres growing larger and larger, urban governance becomes critical because of the impact it has on
the life and liberty of innumerable urban dwellers. With cities becoming centres for large investments,

6. centres of large concentration of population and providers of specialized services and amenities, their
effective and efficient functioning assumes added importance.
With India following a policy of economic liberalization, globalization and deregulation, urban centres
in general and large urban centers in particular are going to attract lot of investment. Urban centers
are likely to emerge as the hub around which entire Indian economy and polity would gravitate.
Accordingly, it would be essential that appropriate and supportive environment is created in these
centres to attract investment, contribute to the national economy and wealth, provide employment,
eradicate poverty and ensure appropriate quality of life to make them more inclusive, equitable,
productive and sustainable. If urban centres have been termed as engines of economic growth, urban
governance can rightly be called wheels of such engines. Urban governance accordingly becomes
more relevant and critical, because capacity of a nation to pursue its goals of economic, physical and
social growth is contingent upon its capacity to govern its towns and cities effectively and efficiently.
Urban settlements are vital because they define the agenda for human living and working.
Accordingly, the overall objective is to improve social, economic and environmental quality of urban
settlements and the living and working environment of all people, particularly of the urban poor. Based
on this premise in 1996, the Habitat Agenda identified, adequate shelter for all and sustainable human
settlements as the international priorities. Subsequently, UN General Assembly in its special session
and World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 stressed the need for, promoting more
sustainable urbanization through better urban governance. Considering that urban planning is both
central and critical to promote better governance of urban settlements, proactive role and importance
of urban planning is accordingly stressed. Urban Planning has the capacity and capability of
promoting sustainability and leveraging planned and rational growth besides making connections
between people, economic opportunities and the environment. It also has the potential to reduce
poverty and promote quality of life for all the urban dwellers through the generation of social and
economic opportunities. Urban planning has enormous potential and capacity to usher an era of
rational growth and planned development, provide space and platform for affordable living and ensure
basic services and amenities and quality of life in urban centres to poorest of the poor to lead a
dignified life. However, urban governance in India is conspicuous by its absence. Cities, as already
stated, are being run by proxy by state and bureaucracy. If cities are to be made smart, then it will be
critical to create local leadership having vision, knowledge, expertise, capability and capacity to
launch city on the path of rational and planned development. Leadership also needs to be made
accountable to people and state for all the decisions made. Adequate framework for checks and
balances will have to be created at the local level in order to avoid misuse and abuse of power and
authority and promote accountability. State must allow and incentivize the local bodies to take up the
onus of managing cities and supporting communities to create quality leadership. In addition to
creating local leadership, it will be critical to provide quality supportive manpower at the local level
having expertise in planning, development, management and financing the urban growth. State must
create a dedicated cadre of CEOs for the cities from bureaucracy and professionals to work at the
local level to make them the city smart on the pattern adopted in Singapore.

7. PROMOTING SMART DEVELOPMENT
Looking at the existing scenario of ever increasing and all pervasive poverty; growth of slums on a
scale never known before; high degree of traffic congestion and obsolescence prevailing in urban
settlements; acute shortage of basic amenities and services in the towns and cities, haphazard and
unplanned development emerging as the accepted pattern of growth, a new regime of urban planning
emerges as the basic necessity to improve the developmental framework of urban centres and make
them smart. Urban Planning has been found to have considerable effectiveness and impact in
leveraging smart and inclusive cities through:
i) Reducing new slums formation through slum up- gradation and ensuring adequate
supply of land for development of affordable shelters in safe and accessible locations.
ii) Reducing vulnerability to natural disasters through carefully siting and planning urban
settlements and designing them as energy efficient and green settlements by addressing
key issues of climate change.
iii) Creating Environment friendly cities through adopting a new regime of transportation
based on least priority for personalized mode of transport, using more efficient and
economical city forms, making cities more compact and humane, creating sustainable
built environment besides putting in place legal and governmental systems which are
promoters of state of art planning and development besides good governance.
iv) Building sustainable economic growth based an adopting livelihood focus in the urban
planning, helping in the process reducing urban poverty and rural-urban migration by
creating appropriate level of gainful employment opportunities. Re-planning declining
cities and derelict areas and reusing/ recycling urban land leading to sustainable
economic growth and better cityscape and quality of life.
v) Creating safer and crime-free cities by adopting planning based on inclusiveness and
partnership and providing a comprehensive framework for different interest groups to
work together for a common purpose. Planned reconstruction and a governance
approach used in the post- conflict reconstruction in strife-torn cities, have been found to
be highly effective to create and promote sustainable communities.
vi) Enhancing quality of life in human settlements by addressing human, social , cultural ,
environmental and natural aspects of settlements and infrastructure through the
mechanism of urban planning, recognizing that poverty remains central to planning of
urban settlements.
vii) Generating Resources by leveraging the inherent potential and capacity of urban
centres to generate resources for development of basic infrastructure and services and
providing amenities which are critical to human sustenance, quality living and rational
growth. Planned development has capacity to usher a new era in the regime of
generating fiscal resources through the mechanism of using land as a resource , levying
development charges both internal and external, land use conversion charges, granting

8. development rights, trading floor area ratio, transfer of development rights,
accommodation reservation, granting air space/advertisement rights etc.
viii) Creating land bank in urban centres through the mechanism of framing land pooling and
distribution schemes by involving land owners as co-partners in the planning and
development process. Town Planning Scheme in Gujarat and Maharashtra can be taken
as role-models for promoting planned development and creating land banks for providing
housing for the poor and laying down road network beside creating open spaces and
institutional sites and generating resources for physical, social, hard and soft
infrastructures.
RE-INVENTING SMART PLANNING
Promoting planned development and
involving Town Planners have amply
demonstrated that good urban planning can
lead to good urbanism and usher a new era
of quality living, better community life and
good governance. Areas developed under
mechanism of planning have clearly shown
that they offer better quality of life and
environment as compared to un- planned parcels. Chandigarh, New Delhi, Gandhinagar,
Bubhaneshwar, Manesar, Gurgaon, Noida, Panchkula, Mohali etc. are few examples of planned
development which have amply demonstrated the effectiveness of urban planning. Master Plans
and Development Plans prepared for various cities have considerably redefined the destiny of
existing towns and cities and have put them on the path of rational growth and development.
Building Bye-laws and Zoning Regulations/Development Control Regulations have also helped in
promoting rational use of land and enabled construction of buildings which meet the basic
requirement of quality living besides ensuring air, light and ventilation within the buildings.
However, despite numerous efforts made, inherent, potential/strength and genesis of art and
science of planned development has not been fully appreciated and put in operation in leveraging
the smart growth and development of urban centres. Most of the sufferings, maladies and poor
quality of life prevailing in Indian cities have their roots and genesis in the gross neglect of urban
planning. Urban planning remains central and critical to promote smart cities and this fact must
be duly acknowledged, appreciated and accepted. No city can be made smart unless it is backed
and supported by a comprehensive, integrated, innovative, state of art, effective and efficient
mechanism of urban planning.
However, in order to make urban planning supportive of Smart cities, we have to look for new
innovative and better options and put in place a new planning regime in operation considering the
pattern of yrban growth and urban dynamism. It needs to be appreciated that present form and
pattern of physical planning and town planning will not be able to meet effectively challenges of

9. 21st century in terms of rapid and massive urbanization of population, urbanization of poverty,
urbanization of pollution, environment, ecology and natural disasters. Planners need to revisit
their planning tools, planning processes and planning options/ strategies in the changed context.
They need to be made more innovative, responsive, flexible, effective and efficient in order to
meet the emerging urban dynamism and challenges.
Master Plans /Development Plans have been
extensively used by urban planners to usher an
era of planned development and redefine future
growth pattern of the cities. But in practice, these
plans have emerged as the major roadblocks in
the planned growth and development of the
cities. Master Plans have been known to be
rigid, consumers of enormous time and
resources, based purely on land use, addressing
merely physical/technical issues, difficult to interpret etc. In the process, Master Plans have put
the planning process on the back foot with planning chasing the city growth and development.
With considerable time taken for preparation, approvals and following detailed and cumbersome
procedural/legal requirements, cities continue to grow in the absence of the planning framework in
an illegal manner, with the result majority of Master Plan proposals become obsolete, outdated
and accordingly non-implementable. Rigidly defined Land Use and Development Control
Regulations often fall under public criticism, resulting in more violations than compliance.
Agencies involved in planning are invariably far removed from ground realities, cities and citizens
leading to formation of non-realistic proposals. Agencies involved in implementation lack technical
expertise and financial resources for effective implementation. The existing administrative and
financial capacity and dichotomy in planning besides lack of will and absence of dedicated
agency , has led to non-implementation of Master Plans. This calls for re-looking at the intent,
content and scope of Master plans which need to be redefined for bringing in more flexibility,
making them less consumers of time and manpower in their preparation , for imparting required
level of dynamism to meet the emerging needs of the cities and making them user friendly and
promoters rather than controller of development. Mechanism of preparing the Master Plans
should be able to create local ownership leading to its effective implementation. This would call
for a new regime and order of planning to be put in place for preparing better Master Plans by
involving all the stakeholders in a transparent and objective manner to ensure better quality of
planned/smart development of cities.
Planning approach to smart cities should invariably be based on looking at cities both inward
and outward. Since cities do not exist in isolation in space and have high degree of connectivity
with surrounding areas/settlements, accordingly most efficient cities in the world have adopted
Regional perspective and not just looking at cities growth. The Regional approach/model has
helped them in minimizing local competition and conflicts, over/under investment in infrastructure

10. and overcoming confusion over role and responsibilities of various agencies. In the process, it has
promoted co-operation, growth of not only of the city but of the region. Bringing flexibility in
planning will be critical to promote smart cities in order to enable cities effectively meet and cater
to the urban dynamism. Master plans will have to be prepared in a manner that they serve as a
framework into which local projects can be fitted. Accordingly, Master Plans will have to be
reshaped as guide to evaluate and assess the new proposals in a rational manner keeping in
view the basic objectives and vision of city growth and development. The master plans will not be
merely land use plans which define the city once for all for next two decades but will be made as
documents which evolve along the city’s changing needs and aspirations. However, flexibility
requires great deal of skill and innovations. Cities that have made a mark in urban planning have
put in place a multi-disciplinary planning department to do justice to the planned growth. Critical
for making planning process promoter of the smart cities will be to make the process both
inclusive and participatory .This would basically involve making planning a collaborative effort
between parties an stakeholders and not dictated by any authority. Such a process shall be based
on an intermix of top down and bottom up approach involving people, communities, NGOs, CBOs,
voluntary organizations and local authorities.
REDEFINING LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Scope, intent and content of Legal framework guiding the planning profession and practice also
needs to be, critically and objectively, relooked in order to make it supportive of the new planning
goals and smart cities. Legal frameworks needs to be simplified and redefined to provide
numerous options to planners to bring flexibility into the planning and development mechanism,
minimize the time frame for plan preparation, plan approvals and plan implementation. Multiplicity
of planning laws needs to be avoided with unified and comprehensive legal framework put in
place. Multiplicity of agencies created to regulate planning, growth and development of urban
centres also need to be avoided and rationalized in the legal framework. Building bye-laws need
to be reframed in order to make them promoters and supportive of quality development. Existing
laws have done more damage than good and have emerged as major roadblocks in the
promoting construction of state of art, energy efficient and sustainable buildings. Building bye-
laws need to be simplified and made user-friendly and promoter of better quality and safer built
environment.
REDEFINING PLANNING EDUCATION
Framework of Planning education also needs to be relooked, in terms of its contents, intent and
syllabi with its contours redefined to make it supportive of new regime of planning practices,
planning profession and creating smart cities. New subjects need to be included in the curricula to
meet emerging challenges of urbanization. Planning education should be able to contribute in
producing better Town Planners equipped with appropriate capacity and capability of
understanding and appreciating ground realities and emerging urban challenges. They should be
capable enough to put in place innovative strategies and options which would promote state of art
development of cities . New breed of Planners should be able to underline and understand the
needs, aspirations and requirements of urban settlements/local residents and address them

11. effectively. They should also be able to visualize and quantify the emerging challenges/threats to
urban centres and evolve policy options for meeting those challenges/threats effectively. Planners
must be able to redefine the agenda for futuristic vision and development for the smart cities
based on in-depth study and analysis of the strength and weaknesses of the city through a SWOT
analysis. Urban governance should be made integral part of the planning education in order to
enable the planners appreciate and understand the underpinnings and genesis of planning and
governance besides their inter-relationship and integration. They must be made aware about the
best practices in urban planning, development and management, being practiced and made
operational globally, in the realm of developing state of art /smart cities.
Unfortunately, research and development is totally missing in the field of urban planning which
has led to the decay of the planning profession and its getting outdated within a short time span.
Continued and dedicated research and development will hold the key to urban planning to
innovate, to evolve new models, strategies and options in order to make urban planning effective,
efficient and productive in the area of planning smart cities. In addition, it will be important that
well resourced planning organizations are created at the local, regional and state level. The
agencies must be fully equipped to innovate with latest planning options, technologies/ models in
order to answer any challenge posed by fast changing urban world. All Planning and
Development Authority must have R & D cells as integral part of planning departments to
undertake the task of research and development. Dedicated and exclusive funds must be
allocated for research and development in the budget of such agencies which can be used by
research agencies/ planning schools, based on specific proposals/projects submitted.
Urban planning in India has largely suffered due to prevailing acute shortage of quality trained
planning professionals. In order to build large reservoir of qualified urban planners, it will be desirable
to create 6 to 8 world class planning institutes on the pattern of Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs)
to train 3000 to 4000 planners annually. In addition, all existing planning schools must be upgraded
and strengthened with dedicated allocation and induction of additional resources/manpower on
continued basis, to enable them to improve quality of the planning profession and professionals.
These schools should also be asked to run dedicated short term courses on regular basis for the in-
service professionals working in the state governments/ urban local bodies, in order to make them
aware of the latest innovations and best practices being used in the field of urban planning,
development and management. This would help in bridging the ever widening gap between demand
and supply of trained planners in the country. For improving the quality of planning education, it will be
critical to grant autonomy to the institutes/ schools from Engineering institutions. However, active co-
operation and collaboration of Planning, Architecture, Engineering, Law, Revenue and Management
institutions must be essential for promoting value addition to the planning education.

12. PLANNING SMART/SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY
Cities are known to contribute 70% of green house gasses with majority of contribution coming from
transportation and buildings. With traditional fuels, transportation sector alone contributes 45% of all
total carbon emissions. Challenges posed by transportation sector accordingly remain daunting and
formidable in creating smart cities. To overcome these challenges options would clearly hinge on
promoting sustainability of urban transport in order to make cities cleaner, greener and smarter.
Promoting Sustainable urban transport would accordingly form integral and essential part of any
strategy to promote Smart Cities. Smart cities would have different order of priority for transportation
led by pedestrianization, cycling , public transport with least priority going to personal transport. Smart
cities will be planned with priority for people and not for vehicles. In smart cities sustainable transport
would essentially call for minimizing use of personalized vehicles; promoting non- mechanized/ non-
fuel based options for travel; using public transport with large
capacity run essentials on non-polluting fuels /electricity;
using state of art technology making vehicles zero-emission;
making cities more compact to limit the need of mechanized
travel; using land use planning to rationalize the travel pattern
etc. It would also involve use of information technologies as
one of the mechanism to reduce travel by using homes as
offices, schools, libraries etc. Use of multi-storied buildings
for making cities more compact can also be considered as a
distinct option for minimizing travel needs of the city.
Draft Concept note evolved by the Ministry of Urban Development for the Smart Cities have defined
the transportation parameters for a smart city in terms of maximum travel time of 30 minutes in small
& medium size cities and 45 minutes in metropolitan areas; creating continuous unobstructed footpath
of minimum 2m wide on either side of all street with right of way of 12m or more; dedicated and
physically segregated bicycle tracks with a width of 2m or more, one in each direction, provided on all
streets with carriageway larger than 10m ;high quality and high frequency mass transport within 800m
(10-15 minute walking distance) of all residences in areas over 175 persons / ha of built Area; access
to para-transit within 300m walking distance.
However, creating sustainable urban transport would require a multi- pronged strategy based on
leveraging the advantages of all modes of travel, involving communities and stakeholders besides
professionals engaged in urban/transport planning, development and management. Increased use of
environmentally- friendly public transport systems and halting of urban sprawl in cities can
substantially reduce emissions and make cities cleaner, greener, smarter and sustainable. Our
capacity to create sustainable urban transport, through state of art cleaner and greener technologies
with innovative city planning, development and management would hold the key to the productivity,
economy, quality of life, sustainability and operational efficiency of human settlements and make
cities smart.

13. LEVERAGING SMART TECHNOLOGY
Smart cities, besides being smart will also have to be intelligent. They will have to be user-friendly and
supporters of higher order of quality of life. Accordingly, technology will form integral part of these
cities, which will be used extensively in planning, development, management and day to day
operations of such cities. Use of innovative/smart technology will promote operational efficiency,
bring economy, efficiency in service delivery and promote high degree of urban governance. Globally,
cities are extensively using Information Communication Technology (ICT) to promote good
governance, bringing transparency in decision making and involving communities and residents in
planning and decision making. ICT is also used to reduce/bridging gap between people aspiration and
administrative decision making. ICT has critical role in rationalizing traffic and transportation, reducing
congestion, creating awareness among road users, informing drivers about the state of traffic and
helping them to plan their journeys taking least congested path, helping in reducing clogging of
junctions and reducing pollution and green house gas emissions. Monitoring of service delivery and
plugging leakage in services have been checked effectively with the use of ICT. Technology has also
been used to generate enormous data regarding city, its growth, development and operations which
serves as a valuable base/input for rational decision making. Intelligent systems have been used to
integrate data generated by different sources in the organization at the city level and to bring high
degree of integration among the working of the various departments within the organization. Many
cities have created interactive portals to provide information and promote connectivity with people and
for addressing their grievances. Dimming/ switching street lights automatically by using real time data
to save 30% on energy cost; using cameras at cross-sections to optimise traffic lights, cut travel
times while reducing air pollution and cost of tackling it ; using One Map, an online portal, enabling
government, business, organisations and residents to access geo-spatial data ; using digital
applications to register concern about streets that require cleaning and potholes that need repair ;
posting information online about pending changes to land use plan; sharing data suggesting best
bus route for any journey in the city ; engaging citizens as active partners in planning and
development process; providing drivers with real- time traffic information to avoid congested roads
and city authorities to track traffic volumes and plan for new roads; creating world’s first solar
powered bike lane to make cycle even greener, have been effectively used by cities of Boston,
Berlin, California, London, and Bucheon in South Korea to make them smarter and harmonious.
CONCLUSION
Approach paper to the Twelfth Five Year Plan- Faster ,Sustainable and More Inclusive Growth-
prepared by Planning Commission of India- listed six initiatives to meet the challenges of Indian
urbanization which included stepping up investment in new urban infrastructures and maintenance of
assets; strengthening urban governance; strengthening soft infrastructure; promoting long term
strategic urban planning; addressing needs of the urban poor and ensuring environmental
sustainability of urban development.

14. McKinsey & Company in its Report- How to make a city great- has outlined three pronged strategy to
make cities great places to live and work. The strategy includes, Achieving Smart Growth by
Adopting a strategic approach, Planning for a change, Integrating environmental thinking and Insisting
on opportunities for all; Doing More With Less by Assessing and managing expenses rigorously,
Exploring partnerships , Introducing accountability and Embracing technology ; Winning Support for a
Change by Crafting a personal vision, Building a high performing team ,Creating a culture of
accountability and Forging stakeholder consensus
Forbe identified eight key aspects that define a Smart City- ‘Smart Governance, Smart Energy,
Smart Building, Smart Mobility, Smart Infrastructure, Smart Technology, Smart Healthcare and Smart
Citizen’.
Draft Concept Note on Smart City Scheme issued by Government of India, has identified Smart City
framework based on seven principles which include Attracting Young Wealth Creators and others;
Promoting Constant Physical Renewal; Creating Unique and Strong City Identity ; Connecting to other
Cities; Encouraging Innovative/Out of Box Thinking ; Attracting Investors and Having Strong Political
and Administrative Leaders
Looking critically and objectively at the entire context of Smart cities, it can be fairly concluded that
effective urban planning holds the key to promote Smart cities and make them a distinct reality. Lack of
serious policies to manage planned development of Urban India will jeopardize its physical , economic
and social growth. Government of India, chartering an agenda for developing 100 Smart cities is a
welcome initiative to promote state of art planning and development of urban India. Earlier initiatives like
JNNURM taken by the Government of India focused on improving basic infrastructure and addressing
poverty and issues related to shelter for the poor besides promoting urban reforms. However,
Government program of developing 100 Smart Cities encompasses the entire gamut of city planning,
development, management and operation in an integrated manner. The program would define a new
regime and agenda for urban planning based on innovations and out of box thinking. With large number
of countries, having knowledge, experience and expertise in the planning and developing smart cities,
chipping in their willingness to provide active support to program , it is hoped a new era of urban
planning will be ushered in the country. However, Indian urbanization and Indian cities are unique in
terms of its growth problems and potentials and according solutions and options for developing Smart
cities will have to be purely Indian. Options for developing green field and brown field cities will also be
different. Any attempt to implant borrowed patterns will prove to be counterproductive. Since the
program includes all the 63 mission cities in the list of 100 Smart cities, care will have to be taken that
this program does not become an extension of JNNURM. Government of India should initiate a study for
the mission cities and assess the works already carried out and evolve a strategy as to how these works
can be leveraged to promote smart cities. Since Smart cities would require an innovative and flexible
approach in planning, it will be essential that Institute of Town Planners and academic institutions
should help in redefining the planning systems which would help in planning smart cities and make them
a distinct reality. However, it must be ensured that no single approach can be universally applied to plan
smart cities. Each city being unique in terms of its growth potential, accordingly would require different

15. planning and development approach for achieving smart growth. . With urban centres holding the key,
future growth and development of the cities will be contingent largely upon the proficiency, efficacy and
efficiency of ‘Planning Profession and Professionals’. Promoting planned development, working with all
stakeholders in a co-operative/co-ordinated /collaborative manner, offers the best option of leveraging
economic, sustainable, rational and inclusive growth of nation, state and local communities Biggest
challenge in crafting a vision, leading the cities from front and promoting smart governance at the local
level will be providing appropriate level of leadership and quality professionals. Government of India in
collaboration with state and urban local governments should work on this agenda, if the program of
creating 100 smart cities is to succeed and become a distinct reality.
BIBLOGRAPHY
 Devas Nick and Rakody Carole (Ed) : Managing Fast Growing Cities.
 Gupta J K :Redefining Strategies for Leveraging Urban Infrastructure Development-published
paper
 McKinsey Global Institute: India’s Urban Awakening: Building Inclusive Cities, Sustaining
Economic Growth, Report April, 2010.
 Ministry of Urban Development ,GOI: Report on Indian Urban Infrastructure and Services March,
2011
 Census of India- 2011
 Indian Institute for Human Settlements Report ,November, 2011,’Urban India 2011:
 Government of India, Planning Commission; Faster, Sustainable and More Inclusive Growth- An
Approach to the Twelfth Five Year Plan, October, 2011
 McKinsey Global Institute : How to make a city great, Shannon Bouton and six others.
 United Nations, New York : World Urbanization Prospects- The 2014 Revision, 2014
 Urban News Digest, Volume III, issue 9: www.urbannewsdigest.in, November,2014
Author:
* Jit Kumar Gupta
Chief Town Planner,
Sahara Prime City Limited
# 344, Sector 40-A, Chandigarh-160036.
E.mail: jit.kumar 1944@ gmail.com