Back in 2014, India shared its plans to turn 100 cities into Smart Cities, and now participating cities are turning to social media in an effort to raise awareness and gain ideas on what should be included in this country-wide initiative.

The Government of India has allocated INR 70.6 billion ($ 1.2 billion) for Smart Cities in the Union Budget for 2014-15. The first stage of the program was the nominations of the cities, and the second stage will begin after the list of nominees have been finalized. Nominees will be given Rs 2 crore (about $300,000) each to prepare their smart city proposals (SCPs).  Once the proposals have been submitted, 20 cities will be selected and be given Rs 100 crore (about $15 million) each to continue development. It is expected that the government of India will spend about Rs 3 lakh crore (about $45 billion) over the next five years on the smart city initiative.

Cities participating in the SCP must submit a concept plan by October and a draft by November 27 and the final proposals should be submitted by December 15, 2015. Proposals must be fall into one of the four categories – greenfield development (250 acres), retrofitting (500 acres), redevelopment (50 acres) and pan-city development.

Because of the fast approaching deadline, some of the participants have turned to social media and the SMS to get suggestions on what areas or projects to focus on the proposal.

The power of social media

Ranchi Municipal Corporation, the governing body of Ranchi, turned to Facebook, Twitter and blogs to glean suggestions for smart city plans, despite not having picked a category.

“Citizens’ participation in preparation of the SCP is a must. So, we have invited citizens to participate and express their views and suggestions on our Smart Ranchi page on facebook, twitter and blogs. People can also suggest us via mail to smartranchi@ranchimunicipal.com,” RMC department head (Information Technology), Rajesh Kumar told Hindustan Times.

Ranchi mayor Asha Lakra stated that it will be easy to pick a category once suggestions have started to come in.

The power of mobile

The Chennai Municipal Corporation, the governing body of Chennai, has started sending SMS to its residents seeking any suggestions for its SCP.

The message reads: “All are requested to post your valuable ideas and suggestion to make Chennai a smart city on www.chennaicorporation.gov.in and mygov.in.”

Chennai has a population of about 46 lakh and about 1.15 crore mobile subscribers. Chennai is one of the municipalities that have a huge mobile population, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), thus turning to SMS to get suggestions is a wise move.

Aside from SMS, Chennai has also put up a Facebook page and added a smart city suggestion tab on its website where its residents can also submit suggestions.

It will be green

Whatever proposals will be submitted, one thing is for sure, things will focus on ecofriendliness, as the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) has been tapped to ensure that the smart cities will be environment friendly as well as energy efficient.

“When the ‘100 smart cities’ project was announced, I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested him to call it ‘100 green smart cities’ by focusing on adopting simple techniques of energy saving, solid waste management, rain water harvesting, recycling, etc. while creating these smart cities across India,” said IGBC chairman Prem C Jain.

Jain added that they were directed to meet officials of Ministry of Urban Development who have agreed to implement green initiatives for the Smart City project.

Photo by Harshit Sekhon