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Smart Cities End Result Should Improve Liveability

With smart cities, smart technological interventions are coming up to reach out to each household and making cities equitable

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Opening the panel discussion at 7th smart cities conclave, Dr Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi, Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Punjab said, “Inclusive, equitable, safe and collaborative for the smart are the basis of good governance.”    

P Narahari from Govt. of Madhya Pradesh said, “Any of the technological interventions should enable and try to reach out to each of the citizens bringing impactful change in the life of citizens. The end result should improve their liveability.”

The garbage vehicles shouldn’t miss a single house. If that is done, it is equitable justice to the city. With smart cities, smart technological interventions are coming up to reach out to each household and making cities equitable.


Ankurjeet Singh, Asst. commissioner, Amritsar Municipal Corporation said, “The four pillars of inclusive, equitable, safe and collaborative cities are the essence of smart cities. We need to ensure fire safety, ICCC centre in a city. I don’t think we can sustain smart cities without smart citizens. If citizens don’t take ownership, smart cities will not be sustainable.”

Sharing his views, R K Arora from Rajasthan said, “Smart cities are using technology. With technology, it brings challenges of safety and security. If unchecked, it can become dangerous too. Services can shut down. If systems are hacked, it can have severe consequences. Smart schools are being digitized. Data is being collected which compromises privacy. Tech platform should be trustworthy, technology should not compromise privacy, cyber intelligence and analysis is important and learn about consequences; capacity to counter and investigate, awareness and training. If you don’t look at the consequences, tech can be dangerous.”

Abhay Gupta, CFO of Gwalior Smart City said there are projects catering to each and every segment of the society. Recently, they started the city bus project which caters to the poor sections, and ac buses catering to the rich.

Talking of collaboration, he said it is the backbone of the smart city. We have to collaborate to deliver any project successfully. For projects like smart schools, they consulted the education department.

Sunil Bhadoria, CFO, Bhopal smart city said, “Smart cities are making the processes smarter. Smart waste management is done through ICCC. We have smart dustbin, and it informs the ICCC, earlier we used to do it manually. Surveillance is done through integrated ICCC. We have initiated cycle tracks, smart roads, with an 18 km cycle track.”

Amit Sharma from Jhansi talked about 2 implementation projects. They have implemented pink toilets in the city, which includes baby care room, medical centre for women. Along with that, they have introduced a women police station for safety, and a 100 bed hospital, along with a girls’ college. They have also introduced radar-based cameras in ICCC to detect in fog as well.


Tags assigned to this article:
smart cities liveability technology pink toilets