urbana world july-aug 2015 edition

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URBANA WORLD PRESENTS

We are happy to Unveil India’s First Smart City Map by Urbana World. With the Smart City Mis-sion progressing at lighten-ing speed, we at Urbana World have taken an initiative to map all the details at one place & bring it to you on the Urbana World Smart Cities Map of India. It includes all the details you need to know of the mission - including insights into the Guidelines, Bloomberg Smart Cities Challenge, Timelines, Funding, imple-mentation models, Apex Committees, Empanelled consultants by the MoUD etc.

FIRST SMART

CITY MAP OF INDIA

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URBANA WORLD July-Aug 2015www.UrbanaWorld.com 4

New Smart City Guidelines Success Mantra: Decentral-ization, Flexibility, Scalability

09

CONTENT

sMART CITY

1045

46

49

A Brief Prospective of Smart Cities in India

Smart Cities – A Primer On The Interna-tional Scenario

City Safety – The First Step in The Smart City Journey

Evolving Role of Telecom Operators in The Smart City Partner Ecosystem

Urban Planning With A Focus On Efficient Utilization Of Space And Resources & Health Of Residents, The Need Of The Hour

06

Rishabh Sethi, Director & Chief

Operating OfficerSPML Infra Limited

ExclusiveINTERVIEW

sAFE CITY

SMART IT & COMMUNICATION

16 SMART CCTV Solving India’s Surveillance Challenges

18Ashok Agarwal

Whole Time Director & CEO Essel Infraprojects Limited Surendra Hiranandani

Managing Director House Of Hiranandani

www.UrbanaWorld.com URBANA WORLD July-Aug 2015 5

38

Anuj PuriChairman &

Country HeadJLL India

Case Studies

Smart City News

52

58-69

Opportunities Into Dhol-era Sir And Smart City

5027

40

sMART iNFRAstructure

BIM in Smart Cities

Infosys Leading The Way In Energy Efficiency In India

Lavasa - Smart City In The Hills13

30

sMART TransportationYou Can’t Have A Smart City Without Smart Parking

Making Our Cities Smart Through Holistic Traffic Management

20

S K JainCheif Financial

OfficerOM Metals

INTERNATIONAL

Smart Governance

22

34

The Systems Aprroach to Smart Cities

Approach For Operational Efficiency In Smart Cities

Smart Energy

42 Electricity And Water Utili-ty Nexus – A Potential Game Changer For Smart Cities

24 Demand Response - Effective Deterrent To Power Blackouts

ExclusiveINTERVIEW

ExclusiveINTERVIEW


Rishabh SethiDirector & Chief Operating Officer

SPML Infra Limited

Exclusive Interview With Rishabh Sethi

What are the main challenges in implementation of the smart cities mission?

The funding from states and resource gen-eration from local bodies would be a bigger challenge apart from the key role state and local bodies has to play in the development of Smart Cities. The coordination between dif-ferent local bodies for an integrated approach will be important. The understanding of the concepts of retrofitting, redevelopment and greenfield development by the policy makers, implementers and other stakeholders at differ-ent levels will be factors determining the suc-cess of the Smart City Mission.

How big is water and wastewater segment in smart city projects?

Water and wastewater infrastructures are the core elements of the smart city development projects and our estimate is that it would be about 40% of the total investment. This pat-tern will be there with all smart city projects whether to develop a complete new city or up-grade the infrastructure to that level.

UW

UW

RS

RS

Is there a target for the level of Non Revenue Water(NRW)or of wastewater reuse in these smart cities?

As per the guidelines for the selection of cities by states, it is clear that the criteria to evaluate the performance of a city will be on how much Non Revenue Water(NRW) / Unaccounted For Water(UFW) and Aggregate Technical & Commercial(AT&C) / Transmission & Distri-bution(T&D) losses has been reduced over a period of time and what actions the concerned utility bodies are taking in this regard. The ex-act sector wise guidelines are not been final-ised, but we expect it to be a part of the plan.

UW

RS

INTERVIEW


Can you please explain more about your upcoming smart city project? How does this project interact with the government’s smart cities mission?

SPML Infra has executed a number of smart water supply system and sewerage network in different cities and is working on to create smart utility management system in different cities. SPML Infra has received the very first Smart City Devel-opment Project in the state of Madhya Pradesh, called “Vikram Udyogouri”. This is part of Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project being developed by Gov-ernment of India as a global manufactur-ing and investment destination. The de-velopment of Vikram Udyogpuri has been selected as one of the early bird projects under the development plan of Pithampur-Dhar-Mhow Investment Region which is one of the 24 regions of DMIC. The pro-posed Smart City will be developed on a total area of 1100 acres.

Under this Smart City project, SPML Infra will be developing

• Smart infrastructures for 24X7 water supply with water treatment plant and pumping station

• Water supply conveyance from Ship-ra river to the site

• Complete sewerage network with sewage treatment plant

• Storm water drainage system• Solid waste management system• Internal and external roads of 4 and

6 lanes• Power transmission and distribution

system• Domestic gas distribution system• Street lighting• CCTV and SCADA system• Safety and security system• Information and communication tech-

nology (ICT) network with peripheral boundary walls.

This is a first of its kind mini smart city project which will have all smart utility connected with technology for seamless services. SPML Infra will execute this De-sign Build Operate (DBO) smart city proj-ect to be completed in 3 years’ time with operation & maintenance for 5 years post commissioning.

UW

RS

UW

UW

RS

RS

How well costed is the government’s INR 48,000 crores investment figure and how much of this do you think will be earmarked for water and wastewater?

The amount of INR 48,000 crores allocated to develop 100 smart cities is a positive move in the right direction. Under the scheme each selected smart city will get INR 100 crores each year for the next 5 years to develop and maintain the infrastructure. An equal amount of money has to be spent by the states and the urban local bod-ies will have to generate their own resources to build upon the project. So the effective resource available will be INR 100,000 crore. The scheme will basically be executed through the public-private partnership (PPP) model. While the allocation will be sufficient for smaller cities, the bigger ones would need to generate revenue through financing to fund the development. As of now, the exact allocation for different infrastructure sectors from the total budget is not finalised. But as per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Urban Development, the nodal ministry for smart cities development in India, water supply features as the very first point as the core infrastructure elements needed to develop a smart city.

Will water infrastructure components be subcontract-ed by master developers or are the developing consor-tia likely to include firms with water capabilities?

There are only a few water companies with capabilities of executing large infrastructure projects in India. We see some joint ventures happening between Indian and foreign compa-ny for some projects. With the expertise of more than three decades, SPML Infra will be a prominent player in the devel-opment of smart infrastructure and we have already start-ed it with our first smart city project as Vikram Udyogpuri in Madhya Pradesh.

UB : What type of con-tracts is SPML pursuing in these smart cities? Will there be BOTs and DBOs as well as EPC contracts?RS : SPML Infra is looking forward to play an integral

role in the development of smart city. There will be different type of contracts including BOT, BOOT and

EPC for the development of infrastructure and SPML will be focussing to develop smart infrastructure for

water supply & distribution, wastewater treat-ment, management & reuse and sanitation

including solid waste management.

INTERVIEW


What differentiates the government’s 100 smart cities from existing or ongoing smart cities such as Dholera Special Investment Region, Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT), Mahindra World City or Palava City? Can they not be considered smart cities too?

The Government of India has planned to develop 100 smart cities from the existing cities, state capitals, tourist & heritage cities. The Indian government has not planned to develop any new city, the existing cities are expected to be developed as smart city with upgrade in existing urban infrastructure, online utility services to citizens, enabled by infor-mation and communication technology. These 100 cities selected by state governments will get the funds from union government to develop and upgrade the infrastructure and facilities up to the level of making it smart.

The state governments and private organisations have already planned to develop either existing cities or develop completely new cities on the line of smart city. The already existing ambitious scheme to develop Delhi-Mumbai-Industrial-Corridor (DMIC) has been planned to develop model industrial corridor of international standards with state-of the-art infrastructure facilities in the region covering six states to activate local commerce, enhance foreign investments and attain sustainable devel-opment. Dholera smart city is a project under the DMIC with an aim to make a global manufacturing hub supported by world class infrastruc-ture. Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) is a Government of Gujarat project conceived as Hi-tec city to be built on 886 acres (3.59 km2) with complete infrastructure for electricity, water, gas, roads, tele-coms and IT so that finance and technology companies can relocate their operations from other cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurgaon etc. Mahindra World Cities being developed in Chennai and Jaipur is a concept to integrate urban utilities near existing metros and comprise SEZs, industrial parks, retail and social infrastructure. Palava City is be-ing developed by Lodha Group as a green city with modern integrated facilities for the residents near Mumbai.

These privately owned or state planned cities can also be termed as smart city but in a restricted and limited space with approved capacities whereas the government of India planned 100 smart cities will be large and existing cities where the urban facilities will be upgraded and de-veloped to the level of smart city, and these will be much larger in scale than the limited ones.

UW

RS

UW

RS

How much investment does the government plan to get from private developers and how much from the local and national governments?

The national government has al-ready pledged to invest INR 48,000 crore, the equal funding is required from the state governments and local bodies need to generate its own funds. Private developers would play a greater role as some schemes involving build, oper-ate and transfer (BOT), and build, operate, maintain and transfer (BOOT) would be implemented in the development of infrastructures. It will be executed through a spe-cial purpose vehicle (SPV) that will be created by each of the local bodies. So the actual involvement and investment from private devel-opers would be known only once the selection of cities is done and detailed report is prepared.

UW

RS

What types of smart tech-nology will be in highest de-mand under this initiative?

To integrate and optimize the infra-structure in a smart city, intelligent infrastructure solutions – such as smart grids, integrated technolo-gy for water and power supply & distribution management, building automation, security solutions, smart transportation, traffic con-trol systems, communication and information technology are need-ed for seamless services.

UW

RS

When will the first tenders come out?

First the selection of 20 would happen and then the detailed project report (DPR) would be prepared. We see tenders coming for the infrastructure development towards the end of this quarter.

INTERVIEW


New Smart City Guidelines Success Mantra: Decentralization,

Flexibility, Scalabilityt Essel Infraprojects, we are excit-ed with the Government’s mission statement and promising roadmap for India’s Smart Cities campaign. The Smart City Guidelines are a step in the right direction and comprehen-sively addresses the key tenants of an integrated, inclusive and sustain-able view. However, we all need to be very patient in realizing this dream as the journey will be far-reaching with a herculean task of transforming the urban landscape and infrastructure of a country of 1.25 billion people. The Ministry of Urban Development has to be commended for issuing much simplified Smart City guidelines which were awaited for a long time. We feel the mission guidelines have better chance of success in translating the vision of 100 Smart Cities as it has ad-

dressed many key issues which were not addressed in the earlier Urban missions. The Guidelines lays equal emphasis on developing and improv-ing basic infrastructure along with implementation of latest cutting edge technology solutions.

Strategically the guidelines provides a flexible and scalable approach and recommends three models for City Development viz. City Improvement (Retrofitting), City Renewal (Area Development) and City Extension (Greenfield) or a mix and match of the above. As the benefit to the citizens will be maximum in case of Retrofit-ting / Brownfield projects, which also provides the best opportunity for ex-isting Infrastructure and Utilities play-ers and our Group would be focusing mainly on such opportunities.

Another welcome change is the ap-proach of putting the onus of selec-tion and implementation of Smart City Mission on the State Government and ULBs, which is departure from earlier missions where the Central Govern-ment played a larger role in develop-mental schemes. Now States would have the flexibility to nominate cities and this would facilitate quick decision making and speedy clearances for the implementing partners.

The concept of implementation through SPV’s which provides more

integrated approach towards planning and execution is another structural reform. Not only this will resolve the issue of accountability but also pro-vide a highly efficient fund mobiliza-tion. This also provides opportunity for the private sector to participate into this mission, making it economical-ly viable and sustainable. Our rough calculations shows that such SPV’s will be able to raise funding of close to 10,000 crores.

Further, the Guidelines are all inclu-sive, so that the economically weaker sections of the society are also ade-quately covered in the development of the city.

Lastly, the guidelines has adequately taken environmental considerations by providing for a minimum of 10% of Solar Energy to be used in the City’s total energy consumption and 100% processing of municipal solid waste. With adoption of right set of models outlining requirements of individual cities and a thorough selection and shortlisting process, the Smart City Projects can be put on the fast track by city ULB’s supported by the state and central government agencies along with private participation.

We firmly believe we are that we are poised and positioned to contribute on this very far-reaching initiative of the Government of India.

Ashok AgarwalWhole Time Director & CEO Essel Infraprojects Limited

A

We believe Urbanization will be one-of-the largest sector to attract collective investments of over USD 100 billion over the next decade and Infrastructure sector is at the cusp of a revolution. Being India’s only Integrated Smart City de-velopers our aspirations from this mission are very high, consequently in our journey over the last 7 years we envis-aged and built our capabilities in developing theme based infrastructure, sustainable green solutions & integrated util-ity services. With Government’s increased focus on better Governance and its citizen centric programs like Swachh Bharat, Digital India, AMRUT and Smart City initiative will all set to transform the quality of life of citizens in the country. We think it is a promising start for private sector to collabo-rate with the Government of India and contribute in making the Smart City vision a reality.

SMART CITY

URBANA WORLD July-Aug 2015www.UrbanaWorld.com 10May-June 2015 10

A Brief Prospective of Smart Cities in India

ndia has seen rapid growth in youth population from last few decades which now started moving towards urban areas for seek-ing better jobs, educations and quality of life. After the global economic inclusion of 1991 Indian market has opened for world business which lead to mass investment in Indian market to create new jobs, rapid industrializations and uplift the Indian market. Subsequently infrastructure in urban areas are not ready to support such growth in shorter time span and a need to enhance the urban infrastructure development to support a better quality of life is felt a deemed necessity at this time.

To improve the quality of life and make life easier, government is planning to improve the infrastructure in urban areas with keep-ing culture and uniqueness of individual city unaffected by these subsequent development. Government of India has launched two mission projects Smart City & AMRUT for improvement of 100 & 500 cities respectively. Under the umbrella of Smart City project Government of India’s focus is on basic infrastructure issues in urban areas which need to be resolved such as :-

Many people have misconception about definition of Smart city that it is merely IT enablement of citizen centric services. The smart city concept goes beyond the use of ICT for better resource use and less emissions.

In current scenario, most of the citizen centric services are delivered in isolation which leads to a chaotic service delivery mechanism.Smart city aims to harmonise all these factors in order to evolve and ensure efficiency in service delivery of various utilities to ensure an enhanced quality of life. Various components like smarter urban transport networks, upgraded water supply and waste disposal facilities, and more efficient ways to light and heat buildings. The smartness would encompasses a more interactive and responsive city administration, safer public spaces and meeting the needs of an ageing population.

A smart city is a place where the traditional networks and services are made more efficient with the use of digital and telecommu-nication technologies, for the benefit of its inhabitants and businesses.

A smart city is an ambulation of various initiatives to bring harmony in urbanisation and development.

Waste Management :

E- Government and Citizen Services :

I

SMART CITY

Water Management : Urban Mobility :

Energy Management :

By Abhishek Srivastava & Abhash Sharma, DIMTS


The ICT sector also needs to address its own energy consumption (and waste generated), which are rising as the sector expands.

ICT will act as a tool to enhance the quality of services in each below sector:-

Environment: -ICT plays a leading role in enabling energy efficiency and sustainability. ICT can

enhance water distribution networks to operate more efficiently and with higher re-silience, while the significant reduction of waste and im-proved waste management enabled by ICT can lead to a more resource-efficient and eco-friendly economy.

SMART CITY

Energy: -The usage of Fossil Fuels is one of the major factors that contributes to the release of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. In current scenario, India is one of the major consumers of fossil fuels. This primarily contributes excessively to the climate change aspect. Every day the energy is used in our homes, offices, vehicles, factories, shops, and therefore it’s in our hands to reduce our energy consumption and CO2 emissions. ICT can be helpful to increase the energy efficiency.

Buildings: ICT in the form of intelligent building man-agement systems and sen-sor networks can save energy by heating or cooling only the parts of the building where it is really needed.

Energy grid: the so-called “smart grid” can

help to reduce peak demand (saving the

need for backup power genera-tors) and bet-ter integrate energy from r e n e w a b l e sources into our supplies.

Homes: ICT in the form of smart meters and smart

a p p l i a n c e s can make con-

sumers aware of the energy

used, and help them to reduce their

energy consumption in real time, change their behaviour towards energy use and save money on their energy bills.

Smart city: ICT can also integrate energy generation and supply with transportation and mobility systems fur-ther reducing overall energy use, as well as making our lives easier by reducing congestion, speeding up our journeys and making vehicles safer. As more and more electrical vehi-cles take to the roads in the future, this integration between a smart elec-tricity supply and citizens’ transport and mobility needs will become even more important.

Some applications of ICT are:


It is also true that ICT itself uses energy, both in a concentrated way such as datacentres, and in much more distributed ways such as the wide scale use of smartphones, tablets and the energy needed for 3G/4G transmission. An smart innovative way of consuming energy for ICT itself should be addressed as well.

Mobility: -Human error is involved in maximum number of traffic accidents on Indian’s roads, in which many people are killed and injured every year. Road transport also burns one quarter of the India’s overall energy consumption, with CO2 emissions caused by road vehicles. eSafety “smart” technologies, based on the powers of computers and telecoms, can make a major difference.

Under Urban Mobility we can include Intelligent Traffic Signal to improve:-

AEnhance citizens’ convenience by establishing, operat-ing, maintaining & enhancing the transport services to:

Provide anywhere, anytime services with a payment gateway. Educate and promote the online, web based citizen centric services like application submission, payment, appointment etc. Introduce Smart Card based licenses and registration certificates. Introduce dealer registration process enabling the registration of vehicles. Extend the citizen services from RTO, RTA/ STADevelop web based integrated information system to deliver anytime / anywhere information to citizensRegistration and authorization of Transport Services Provider (TSP) en-abling citizens to get legalized service delivery from the TSPs.

BInduce efficiency & effectiveness in Transport Sector:

Establish business processes and work flow management systems using web based services. Develop centralized data centre for host database for proposed services. Connect Data Centre with Head Office, RTO, RTA/ STA etc. Increase transparency in the overall functioning of the department. Provide interfaces with Banks & Financial Institutions, Insurance compa-nies, Police for better information sharing and validation checks. Provide single click data & Management Information Services (MIS) for Department & other enforcement agencies of State, etc.

SMART CITY


SMART TRANSPORTATION

P

You Can’t Have A Smart City Without Smart Parking

“You can’t have a ‘Smart City’ without ‘Smart

Parking’” is the mantra of Smart City Parking,

a parking solutions company whose

parent company have more than 25 years of experience in the UK.

arking Control Management (UK) Ltd manages more than 2,000 parking schemes in the UK, and around 1,000 in the capital London area alone. Their portfolio includes Europe’s largest shopping center, Blue Water in Kent, with more than 13 lakh parking spac-es.

PCM India Pvt Ltd was incorporated in 2012. Subsidiary Smart City Parking Management India Pvt Ltd followed earlier this year.

Parking is a major bane of Indian cities and has not yet captured the attention let alone imagination of users, urban planners and the commuter.

In the UK, PCM specialises in a ‘one-stop’ solution for residential parking

schemes, with prominent London bor-oughs among their clients and works on a national basis with hundreds of social housing providers.

Smart City Parking say Municipal Corporations in India need to ensure a free flow of traffic on the roads they manage.

Under the Road Transport & Safety Bill 2014 Smart City Parking are cam-paigning for parking charges to be based solely on the need to manage parking.

They stress that if drivers disobey parking restrictions they should be issued with a parking charge notice (PCN) or penalty fines.

Director Ian Cordingley explains: “Effective car parking provisions and town center prosperity go hand in hand the world over, but this is being ignored in India. It’s no surprise then that Indian cities are at the bottom of the Mercer’s annual ‘Most liveable cities’ index.

“Cars in India regularly and readily park on paved areas, pushing the pedestrian into the road, thus further congesting and slowing down traffic movement.”

Furthermore, Smart City Park-ing believe price-related parking zones should be designated in City Centres and Central Business Districts so that business can flour-ish. In addition, those motorists responsible for bad and inconsid-erate parking, who do not care to park properly and leave their vehi-cle anywhere they choose, should be held to account.

Mr Cordingley adds: “It is time the Indian Government woke up to the parking menace blighting the country to formulate a smart parking policy where park-ing charges are fixed in relation to existing rentals and land values pertaining to that area. Higher and more effective parking tariffs are necessary in many locations, to ease congestion and cover costs.

By Parking Control Management (UK) Ltd



Mr Cordingley continues: “Municipal Corporations can keep proceeds to finance improvements to all services related to parking. A smart, strong and robust parking policy is needed to decongest cities. If India continues to subsidise cars heavily and encourage free parking no city can fulfil its potential.

“It is essential that parking in India’s cities, smart or not, is charged for and regulated. “

“At the very least, a Smart parking en-forcement policy for on-street parking should be priced, zoned and enforced by deploying Skilled Resources equipped with Smart Parking Management technol-ogy to help cure situations like the “mess” at Sarojini Nagar in New Delhi and to also help clear up similar issues all over India.

“These measures do and will encourage parking in a responsible and effective manner and also produce far-reaching benefits for all cities.”

The Smart City Parking strategy is for on-street parking fees to be more expen-sive than the off-street fees, to encourage people to park out of the central on-street areas.

Any scheme for off-street / out of town parking sites will be largely unworkable unless suitably and accurately-priced parking fees and enforcement charges/fines are in place.If there isn’t suitable pricing and enforce-ment for on-street parking, the off-street

car parks will be empty and the streets will be full and congested.

An alarming point in case is the multi-level car park at Sarojini Nagar market within New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC).

A recent Times Of India newspaper article headline screamed multilevel parking lot fails to clear sarojini nagar mess.

Three years after New Delhi Municipal Council opened a multilevel parking lot at Sarojini Nagar market, few peo-ple are using this facility. According to traders and residents, vehicles are still parked haphazardly on the main roads and in colony lanes despite vacant slots in the NDMC parking facility.

Shopkeepers say during evening hours it is virtually impossible to reach the multilevel parking lot as the main roads become chock-a-block with cars and two-wheelers.

Residents say the situation worsens during weekends with rows of vehicles getting extended to neighbouring residen-tial colonies.

NDMC chairman Jalaj Shrivastava said:

“It is an enforcement issue. We will look into the matter and settle it.”

“Vehicles are parked in both lanes of the main roads leaving little space for other vehicles to pass by. It often takes 20-25

minutes to reach the parking lot,’’ said Ashok Randhawa, president of Sarojini Nagar Mini Market Traders’ Associa-tion.

“On weekends, it is impossible for res-idents to move freely in the area. Vehi-cles are parked haphazardly on colony roads, near parks etc,’’ said Kawaljeet Singh, secretary of RBI colony adja-cent to the multilevel parking lot.

“The idea was to encourage people to use the multilevel parking. But it has failed to solve the problem. In fact, it has become worse as now nobody keeps

a tab on it,’’ said Pramod Sharma, pres-ident of Sarojini Nagar Market Traders’ Association.

The Piece Explained How

Once again the key issue to address here is parking fees and the fact that the park-ing fees are far too low.

To park in the multilevel car park at Saro-jini Nagar in Delhi it costs just 10 rupees, but the fee to park for on-street surface parking is still nominal at just 30 rupees for four hours.

“Just 30 rupees to park for four hours in a central area of Delhi is unworkable.”

Points out Mr Cordingley. “To park in the central areas of London, UK, for instance, it can cost anywhere between 500 and 1000 rupees to park for just one hour.

From these findings, it is clear and the norm that the on-street figure needs to be significantly higher than the multilevel prices to encourage drivers to park in that multilevel car park.He concludes: “It is fundamental that us-ers of all car parking services in India are

provided with high standards of care, that they are treated fairly and proportionally and that they are encouraged always to comply with parking rules.”



Ms Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director at Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi explained in InfraTech mag-azine in 2012: “Global reviews show that it is erroneous to think that plentiful off-street parking can automatically reduce on-street parking. This can only happen if parking is banned in selected areas. On-street parking always remains attractive as it is most convenient. Additional measures are needed to discourage not only on-street parking but parking as a whole.”

Indeed, in the most central of business districts, Mr Cording-ley is adamant that in some areas, on-street parking should always be banned completely, but that the motorist must also be protected.

* PCM UK/India and Smart City Parking are now expand-ing their studies and operations with a multi-State com-mitment, and will launch a series of pilot parking schemes in the second half of 2015. They are currently in negotia-tions with key stakeholders and working on Expressions Of Interests and Requests For Proposals in New Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana, Odisha and Bangalore.

Does a Smart City have to be built from scratch?

No! Any city can and should have ‘smart’ practices!

Q

A

Parking Control Strategies Effect

Driver Reaction To Parking Control Creates A Change In

* Travel Patterns* Travel Demand* Traffic Congestion* Parking Management

* Parking Type* Location Of Parking* Mode Of Travel* Car Occupancy* Destination* Frequency Of Trip-Making* Time Of Travel* Parking Duration

Smart City Parking Objectives

* Easier, faster and better parking – making more spaces available

* Reducing carbon emissions and congestion

* Increasing / reinvesting parking revenue into the community

* Technology-driven parking policy, working for cash-less

payments

* Relieving conventional traffic police of Mundane duties


SMART CCTV Solving India’s

Surveillance Challenges

T he ratio of police force to citizens, rabid bribe tak-ing and lack of enforcement of existing laws has exacerbated the grim law and order situation in our cities and towns. The answer to controlling crime has always been to install thousands and mil-lions of CCTV cameras pretty much everywhere. A growing market of CCTVs has emerged, visual postings of ‘This area under video surveillance’ do act as a crime deterrent, in many cases the video footage reviews have helped solve the crime, but unfortunately the usefulness of CCTVs in India has been always ‘After the Fact’, and that too only for serious crimes.

The City of London has probably the most number of networked security cameras, with rumors being that there is one camera for every 14 persons walk-ing on the streets of London, where all the CCTV high resolution video feeds come through a high speed fiber network to a central server. The serv-er runs a host of video/image analysis algorithms, captures and compares feeds from multiple camer-as and able to analyze context aware situations with experts continuously monitoring each alert. Simi-larly in the city of Singapore, the traffic lights and

lanes are monitored with networked CCTV camer-as and they have even gone beyond the usual red light violations to looking at parking non-conformity, a car being driven on a bus lane and zooming in to capture license plate information, all done auto-matically with networked CCTV cameras with im-age and video analytics running on the back-end or cloud servers. There are IP cameras today that are increasing their intelligence quotient. Detecting mo-tion, detecting basic objects and panning, zooming or moving the camera to the field of view or object of interest is common, but any further sophistica-tion for ‘Context Aware Analysis’ is seldom done at the camera end and done in servers or cloud at the back end. This works beautifully when you have a thick fat pipe with all the available bandwidth to get the high resolution videos into your data centers and throw computing resources and best of class algorithms to detect, analyze and make decisions.

But what do you do if the CCTV camera is not net-worked or there is sporadic bandwidth availabili-ty, limited to intermittent 3G or WiFi connectivity? Unfortunately this is the case in many emerging countries like India today, severe bandwidth pres-

With rapid urbanization, security and terrorist threats, traffic chaos, law and order implementation

woos, security and surveillance has come up as the top requirement for emerging countries like India.

SAFE CITY

By Somshubhro Pal Choudhury, MD-India, Analog Devices


sure with limited radio power and spec-trum availability, data deluge from mobile and limited last mile connectivity. Even if the connectivity improves, getting millions of HD video feeds to a central server and throwing computing resources on them is expensive, and with high capex and opex. Hence, today 99% of the CCTVs are non-networked, they store the video in Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) locally in the premises. When a crime or a law violation happens, and only when seri-ous enough, the report gets filed with the police, it takes a few days for the police to come, take the DVR, review frame by frame to initiate investigation. Many times if DVR storage capacity was limited, the vid-eo would have already been overwritten. In most situations, the criminal is already absconding, impossible to apprehend, lost among our 1.25 billion population. These were some of the challenges highlighted in a broad based discussions on security for schools and ATMs, that was discussed at a

workshop back in 2014 at the Analog De-vices India office chaired by Arvind Tiwary of Technology Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) leading the Internet of Things (IoT) initia-tives. Recently, Analog Devices demon-strated a Smart CCTV solution, ATMWatch at India’s first Smart City Expo in New Del-hi. The solution demonstrated was with an existing non-networked CCTV in an ATM kiosk fitted with an image/video analytics box which could analyze different scenar-ios in an ATM Kiosk and send out these alerts via WiFI/GSM - like multiple people entering an ATM kiosk that had a single ATM machine, a scuffle (between two or more people), weapon detection, a person falling down (getting shot, injured or sick) or a person with a mask or helmet on. Cur-rently this solution is being demonstrated and piloted with system integrators.

Similar context based video and image analytics could be done for burglary in Jewelry shops, diesel pilferage in cell tow-ers, checking for unfortunate incidents in schools and public transport, or even re-ducing the extent of DVR recording, thus increasing the number of hours of DVR vid-eo footage stored in a DVR, recording only when an incident like a person is detected. Such a system would be using existing or cheap CCTV cameras, and use the current GSM or WiFi network to send the alerts out along with an image or short video time stamped clip of the incident. An alternative could be an integrated image sensors and image analytics processor for a greenfield Digital video application with the Analog Devices BLIP2 board, ‘Best of Sensors’ Gold winner at the Global Sensors & Expo Conference in Long Beach, California re-cently. Lets take another example of a big Smart City problem, traffic and law en-forcement. Today at the traffic light junction in most of our cities, there is a set timing

pattern for the lights to turn green or red, or else a policeman is usually seen man-ually flipping back and forth the switch in a busy intersection during prime time. Would this not be better if the camera could look at the queue length of the traffic, send the queue length information to a central serv-er (not the entire video) via GSM and get inputs from the traffic controller regarding timing of the particular traffic light. The cen-tral traffic controller would have data points for all such traffic queues across the city real time, anywhere and anytime, he could even notify the police to look at a particular area if traffic queue is piling up probably because of an accident. Additionally, the smart camera could count the number of 2 wheelers, 3 wheelers, commercial and 4-wheelers through the traffic light at differ-ent times of the day and feed that survey back to the city planners. Additional bene-fits would be to zoom and pan to an object of interest and take a photograph, like cap-turing the license plate information of a car parked in a no parking zone.

These are just some of the examples of how the ubiquitous CCTV cameras could be made smarter and then connect them up with Internet of Things (IoT) cloud plat-form for decision making and timely noti-fication and alerts. This is a classic case of ‘Fog Computing’ or ‘Intelligence at the Node’ in IoT language where transferring all the data to the cloud is either not via-ble or too expensive. As we start our Smart City endeavor, Smart Surveillance, Smart Traffic and Smart Parking and even Smart Lighting could all be addressed to a large extent with the ubiquitous camera, at a fraction of the cost with minimal investment in infrastructure with emphasis on vision and image analysis.

SMART CCTV Solving India’s

Surveillance ChallengesConsider smart car parking scenario in large parking lots of malls, events etc. Smart Parking in the context of global smart city projects are based on RF based solutions at each parking node, an expensive proposition. In countries like India, where price is of utmost importance, Smart CCTV cameras can do the trick, a single camera looking at the entire aisle, running vision analyt-ics to detect empty parking spaces or non-conformity of parking.

SAFE CITY


Urban Planning With A Focus On Efficient Utilization Of Space And Resources & Health Of Residents,

The Need Of The Hour

Surendra Hiranandani Managing Director House Of Hiranandani

oday Indian cities have become highly congested and chaotic, with urban planning taking a virtual back-seat. City planning overlooks var-ious critical elements such as the provision of clean water to citizens, sewage treatment, robust road in-frastructure and efficient transport networks. Urbanisation in India has become the victim of systemic inef-ficiencies and policy paralysis. Less emphasis is given towards modern methods of planning of towns and cities, which ensure better health to its residents, efficiently manage their time, saving natural resources such as fuel and making more land avail-able for productive usage. Hence, there needs to be a paradigm shift from the old-fashioned and conser-vative approach to a broad mind-ed and modern approach of urban planning.

Major Indian cities were developed by the British more than 100 years ago. The population of these cities in those days was meagre and the social and economic needs were much different than what it is today. The cities gradually began to ex-pand haphazardly with the growing population, without taking any futur-istic planning into account. Except for certain examples such as Chan-digarh, Noida, Gurgaon or Navi Mumbai, there have not been much of examples of a planned develop-ment within a city.

The government’s recent announce-ment of 100 smart cities and AM-RUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation of 500 cities) are a step in the right direc-tion, which will give a major boost

to a futuristic urban development. However, strong emphasis and fo-cus needs to be given to urban plan-ning. Efficient utilization of space, resources and health of residents will go a long way in laying the roadmap of future cities. Analysing the planning and layout patterns of existing modern global cities could give a good perspective on modern planning.

A detailed study on some of the best planned cities such as New York, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Bogota, Seoul, and Sao Paolo shows the adoption of two significant concepts of ‘Dense and Mixed Use Develop-ment” and “Pedestrian Focused Cit-ies” in the planning of these cities. Adoption of these concepts in our urban planning strategy can help us achieve the goals of maximum development in minimum space, efficient utilization of resources and health of citizens.

Let us try to understand these con-cepts in detail.

Dense and mixed use devel-opment

Dense cities are vibrant econom-ic hubs. Density and mixed use planning makes infrastructure and service delivery in a city economi-cally viable. This includes IT, health, emergency, education, sports and cultural services. In denser environ-ments, these provisions will have more people in their catchment area and construction will need to be less spread out to reach end users. The per capita cost of providing in-frastructure decreases as density increases. Mixed use cities also al-

T

A engineering genius, avant-garde architect, vi-sionary, philanthropist are just some of the epithets that one associates with Mr Surendra Hiranandani. The Founder and Managing Di-rector of House of Hiranan-dani has the unparalleled distinction of transform-ing barren land into some of India’s most vibrant life spaces.

SMART INFRASTRUCTURE


SMART CITY

NEWS IN YOUR INBOX EVERY DAY!

low for better use of space and opti-mum infrastructure for use round the clock. For instance, car parks can be used by people in offices during the day and by people in shops and restaurants at night. Residence, work and leisure should be within walking distance, thereby reducing the travel time, traffic and pollution and stress. Density is the key to a make public transit work and also to ensure safety. The point partly explains why Delhi is more unsafe than Mumbai. Dense pedestrian fo-cused cities prevent crimes unlike cities spread on vast lands. Dense cities that have street front stores have taken a big step in creating an automatic safety measure.

Pedestrian focus rather than car focused transit

Trying to build a car focused city through broad roads can worsen the traffic problem. The United Nations Environment Programme has showed that chronic traffic conges-tion amounts to time and productivity losses and such costs can add up to nearly or over 10% of a region or country’s GDP. A pedestrian focused city has a lot more ad-vantage like improved health of the citizens. The same can also help us in addressing diseases like diabetes. In the west, walkable urban design is now being recognized as a key tool to build healthy societies. More people on the streets will also mean op-portunities for social interaction thus facilitating a socially inclusive community. Smart cities are crucial for India to be competitive and productive. With the make in India campaign in full flow, India has become a preferred destination for setting up facilities which means greater need for land, escalating traffic, more people on streets etc. Dense, mixed use and pedestrian focused planning will help make our cities economic engines, job creators, safe, healthy and equitable. Urbanizing in an efficient manner provides a valuable opportunity to drive economic growth and improve standard of living for our millions of citizens.


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Exclusive Interview With

S K Jain

S K JainCheif Financial Officer

OM Metals

What ecosystem is required for the Smart City industry to take roots?

UW

SJ

JV of Om Metals & SPML Infra has recently bagged a contract to set up a Smart City named Vikram Udyogpuri near Ujjain. What type of a contract is it & what will be the duration of its completion?

It’s a 3 year contract for development of 1000 hect-are Vikram Udyogpuri near Ujjain for development of roads,water treatment , sewage plants , utility, lighting, culverts bridges , waste handling plant , ICT –CCTV ,ac-cess control etc

UW

SJ

SJ

Since it’s an EPC Contract, large amount of Work-ing capital will be required by the company for or-der execution. How are you planning to finance this amount ?

We have banking facilities with us and we are self suffi-cient to cater to this industry.

UW

SJ

UW What are your plans & strategy to tap the Smart City Market in 2015?

Since we are already experienced in developing roads, townships,buildings, hotel, civil construction of massive scale and we have pan India presence – we do see our-self as a perfect strategic contributor in developing smart cities with time bound delivery with quality and consis-tency - We shall actively participate in tenders and shall wish to have work awarded to us so that we can deliver as usual – our track record in timely delivering dam and engineering construction speak itself

A

B

C

D

E

F

Proper identification of de-veloping cities with indus-trial outlook with availability of land – land is very much article of dispute and it holds back all infrastructure /industrial development as-pirations.

Detailed survey and techni-cal viability report

Assessment of attraction in terms of habitation and availability of industrial friendly work force and oth-er resources.

Tender offload and e ten-dering with a stricter frame of completion within desired time

Availability of bank facilities to developers at attractive terms

Monitoring of the work regularly by reputed PMS agency

UB : Smart city is

now not a question of if, but a question of how & when. What is your vision of a Smart City? And your role in helping develop a city - Smart.

SKJ : The way India is poised to develop infrastruc-ture way and industrial growth in “ make in India’ way – demand for smart cities are much on rise and we are committed to contribute to this development arena. In at least couple of years during the reign of NDA Government the development work of smart cities will be awarded like a model of Vikram udyogpuri and a detailed study and need will seek all modern amenities in a city to make it smart. We have all pool of qualification to build infrastructure , roads , sewage, water distribution, survilience,logistics and IT related set up.

INTERVIEW


1 IT and Networks 4Oil And

Gas

5 Abundant Human resource

2 Infrastructure

3 Production and proper distribu-

tion of agri and food products

UW Rank top 5 areas of the world in order of their “Willingness & Readiness to become Smart”

SJ

These five things will make any country equipped , smart and help it run with the time.

INTERVIEW


The SySTemS AprroAch To SmArT ciTieS

Dr Scott Steedman, Director of Standards at BSI and Dan Palmer Head of Market Development for Manufacturing & Ser-vices at BSI discuss how the UK is setting the global Smart Cities agenda

Dr Scott SteedmanDirector of Standards

BSI

is Director of Standards at BSI where he is responsible for the UK National Stan-dards Body. He is a nonexec-utive member of the Board of the Port of London Authority (PLA) and a former Vice Presi-dent of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Smart ThinkingIncreased urbanization and pressure on natural re-sources provide many reasons to support the case for the smart city, be that creating a ‘greener’ envi-ronment, with more efficient use of energy and water, or simply accommodating the global demands for better services and facilities for growing populations. Achieving these goals calls for intelligent use and sharing of existing information within a city, to target services where they are most needed. For this to be done repeatedly, and at scale, a common set of solu-tions has to be set out through the development of smart cities good practice and guidance.

The Smart City ChallengeAs with all ideas that are open to interpretation, how to achieve them can be difficult, especially when dealing with the engineering and data management challenges inherent in major city development proj-ects. The first problem is to agree a common under-standing of what a smart city is, for which we need a common language to explain smart cities and a shared vision of the future that a smart city will make possible. People will then know what is on offer, inno-vators can explain the benefits of their solutions and city authorities can spend public funds with confi-dence in the outcomes.

The SolutionTo do this effectively, standards are needed. They provide a formal process to agree not only technical specifications but also best practice in issues such as public procurement of smart services, or community involvement so that everyone in-volved can gain confidence in the outcome. To address the smart city challenge, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) commissioned BSI, in its role as the UK’s national standards body, to lead work on standards to support and deliver the smart city vision. During this process, it became clear that the challenge is not confined to technical ques-tions around the exchange of data and the interoperability of systems. There is a wide range of issues surrounding how cities plan, procure and implement smart technologies.

INTERNATIONAL


The Smart City Standards And Data Protocols The UK was the first country to publish a suite of standards that starts to address the full breadth of the smart city challenge. Developed by working groups representing all interests, the standards provide an overview of the concept, a common vocabulary, and a framework to guide decisions on how to create smart cities, guidelines on planning and a concept model to enable data-sharing between agencies. If we split this work into two stages we can see a first stage of work which has focused on establishing a common understanding of the benefits of smart cities and the approaches that can be taken to improve city performance. Specific projects include:

• PAS 180, which has established common terminology for smart cities, promoting a shared understanding of concepts

• PD 8100, which provides smart city planning guidelines to set out how major new residential, retail and business developments can support the wider plans of that city to become smarter

• PAS 181, which provides a decision-making framework for smart city leaders, setting out how to deliver a smart city project

INTERNATIONAL

Dan PalmerHead of Market Development for

Manufacturing & ServicesBSI

is Head of Market Develop-ment at BSI, where he leads on standards for manufacturing and service industries, with a particular interest in emerg-ing technologies. As part of this, he is responsible for the development of BSI’s smart city standards programme.

The latest member of the portfolio is PD 8100 Smart Cities overview – Guide which provides an overview description of a smart city, offering a basis for communicating the benefits of smart cities to key decision makers. In addition, this guide provides a number of tools for decision makers such as a smart city process framework and a capability assessment/gap analysis diagnostic tool to help cities in the development and implementation of a roadmap towards becoming smarter. As an integral part of the second stage of this programme, BSI and the Future Cities Catapult have joined forces and created the Cities Standards Institute (CSI). The CSI board is composed of some of the largest UK cities and a number of key industry players that have come together to explore market barriers even further. As well as standards on the use of information and data, the CSI will also provide guidance for cities on new business models. The pioneering nature of smart city products and services, which cut across city systems and benefit different agencies, makes them hard to assess using conventional cost-benefit models. New approaches are needed to drawing up business cases and, particularly, on best practice procure-ment for smart city projects.

The Global ViewThe global smart cities market is emerging rapidly and analysts talk of a global market of around $40 billion a year within the next few years. As the price of digital technologies fall, market forces will drive their adoption to make infrastructure and city services more efficient. However, there is a need to shape the market to make sure the right conditions are created for innovation through citizen/community and business engagement. The UK smart city standards have already been down-loaded in over 60 countries, and we have seen strong interest in them from stakeholders in India, as well as across Europe and China. The holistic approach starting with city needs, before designing the technical solutions, fits well with the approach taken to develop large scale smart city programmes, and provides a toolkit for thinking through the issues involved in city development.


ndia is the world’s third largest electricity producer and consumer of electricity after the United States and China. Consumption of electricity in India has been increasing exponentially over the past few decades. According to a Central Electricity Au-thority (CEA) report, the electricity deficit through-out India in 2013 is projected to be 10.6% (CEA 2012). India’s electricity demand is projected to reach 1,900 terawatt-hours (TWh) by 2021–2022 (MOP 2007). The commercial, residential, and in-dustrial sectors account for 10%, 39%, and 24%, respectively, of the total 694,392 gigawatts-hours (GWh) of electricity consumption in the country.

The present estimated peak power shortage in the country is 11% to 17% (CEA 2009).This pro-duction of electricity is highly dependent on the power infrastructure which itself is not reliable, owing to the various factors like production is-sues, transmission and distribution losses. An es-timated 27% of energy generated is lost in trans-mission or stolen, while peak supply falls short of demand by an average of 9%. The nation suffers from frequent power outages that last as long as 10 hours. There have been staged ramp ups in power infrastructure to meet the ever increasing demand. But still there are certain days in a year when power demand outstrips the available sup-ply, which at times have resulted into mass power outages or blackouts.

India is the world’s third largest elec-tricity producer and consumer of electricity after the United States and China.

10%

39%24%

27%

Commercial Sector

Residential Sector

Industrial Sector

Others

Demand Response - Effective Deterrent To Power

Blackouts

SMART ENERGY

By Honeywell

Electricity Consumption in India

I

While commercial sector electricity use is a small-er slice of the pie today, this sector is facing the third-highest compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past four decades (8.29% as of 2010–11), surpassed only by domestic and agri-culture sector growth (MOSPI 2012).


Ever thought of thousands of cities, mil-lions of human lives and business ac-tivities engulfed in darkness due to grid failure as a result of sudden spike in peak power? Yes, it is akin to deck of cards fall-ing flat at one swoosh of your little finger.

Two severe power blackouts rocked most of northern and eastern India on July 30 and 31, 2012. The 30 July 2012 India blackout affected over 300 million people and was then-the largest power outage in history, counting number of people affect-ed, beating the January 2001 India black-out. The 31 July 2012 India blackout was the largest power outage in history.

The outage affected over 620 million people, about 9% of the world popu lation, or half of India’s population, spread across 22 states in Northern, Eastern, and Northeast India. An estimated 32 giga-watts of generating capacity was taken offline in the outage.

Historically, demand spikes have occurred at the hands of weather extremes – heat waves and cold snaps, for instance, cause the consumption of energy to exceed its creation. When this occurs, grid operators have only two options – they can call up “peaking” power plants (typically gas or diesel Generators) that are very expensive to maintain and operate, or they can buy capacity from other consumers of energy who are willing and able to reduce their energy load. This second option is called demand response. When using a demand response program to reduce load, utility or ISO (independent system operator, a third-party responsible for maintaining bal-anced distribution of power on the grid) will notify enrolled customers that an “event” is

necessary. These events can require fast (ten minutes or less) response, or could be scheduled hours or even a day ahead. By getting commitments from customers to reduce load, the ISO or utility can better plan how to respond to the peak demand on the grid.

As more variable generation capacity comes online through renewable ener-gy sources such as wind and solar, the need to balance supply and demand on the grid will increase, and so will the complexity inherent in the balancing act. Even small nuances in weather will have a significant impact on energy demand and management. Widespread cloud cover, for instance, can affect both sup-ply and demand, reducing the kW gen-erated by solar panels and increasing the energy consumed by hundreds or even thousands of buildings reliant on light harvesting by two-thirds or more as those buildings are forced to compensate for daytime darkness by lamping. As a result, demand response will become a much more important part of day-to-day grid operation. When a demand response event occurs on the grid, the coordination of these adjustments in manual fashion across multiple locations is impractical and ineffective. Manual management of a demand response event requires energy or facility managers to actively initiate and deactivate DR events, taking his or her fo-cus away from more important duties. It’s

also ineffective because it requires a con-scious decision to act at a personal level, an approach fraught with forgetfulness and manual error. The alternative is ADR (automated demand response), which is enabled by a modern EMS. ADR elim-inates manual intervention from the re-sponse to a demand event, allowing mul-tiple sites to maximize the benefits of the smart grid. Communication of the event is coordinated between the utility and appro-priate site equipment in machine-to-ma-chine fashion, managed only by exception (e.g. if the participating power consumer chooses to opt out of the event). Honey-well’s ADR technology solution is based on open standard specifications known as OpenADR. The OpenADR specifica-tions describe an open standards-based communications data model to facilitate DR communication between service pro-viders and consumers. The specification defines various XML-based messages that can be exchanged over any IP-based network using protocols such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) or XML Messag-ing and Presence Protocol (XMPP). The OpenADR 1.0 specification introduces the concept of the Demand Response Automation Server (DRAS). The role of this component is to automate the com-munication between various entities in the system. The DRAS augments the generic bidding procedure by serving as an inter-mediary between the DR Manager (usual-ly the energy supplier) and the consumers. The DR Manager informs the DRAS of a DR event and the DRAS in turn publishes this information to the consumers. Con-sumers have the option to set up standing bids with the DRAS so that when a new DR event is announced, they can either place new bids or maintain their standing bids or cancel their standing bids by opt-ing-out of the event. The DRAS forwards the new bids or standing bids to the DR Manager who accepts bids until the DR objective is met.

To surmise the benefits of Automat-ed Demand Response technology for both the utilities and the participating consumers, the below section would give a glimpse of different facets while looking holistically at Smart Grid as the concept:-

SMART ENERGY


Benefits For The Utilities/Isos Implementing Adr (Auto-mated Demand Response) Technology: • Allows utilities to manage the peak event effec-

tively by creating DR event for a pooled set of consumers

• Do more with less (power infrastructure) by avoiding construction of peaking power plants or buying power at higher rates during peak events

• Implement pricing strategies/regimes by seg-menting consumers under different SMART clusters (Commercial, Residential, Industrial, Agriculture..)

• ToU (Time of Use) Pricing Regime :- The energy price varies predictably according to the time at which it is used

• CPP (Critical Peak Pricing) Pricing Regime :- The energy price is specifically increased for periods of peak demand

• Dynamic Pricing Regime :- The energy price varies dynamically in time or geographic lo-cation depending on the ratio between sup-ply and demand

• Incentive Based Automated Demand Response: - As an alternative to price-based DR, incen-tive- based schemes provide certain incentives (usually financial in nature) to consumers who participate in DR events

• One type of incentive-based DR is a demand bidding (DR-DB) system. A DR-DB system requires a bidding protocol in which the DR Manager (e.g. the energy supplier) initiates a DR event and consumers send bids indi-cating the amount by which they are willing to reduce demand at the specified time. These bids might include each consumer’s desired incentive price if this is not specified by the DR Manager. The DR Manager ac-cepts these bids until the DR objective has been met. Although it is not required, it may be desirable to check that consumers with accepted bids actually do reduce or shift their consumption accordingly. The bi-direc-tional communication in the bidding protocol provides a feedback loop to DR Manager. Without this feedback, the DR Manager would be required to predict the effects of specific DR actions on consumers’ behavior. Depending on the dynamics of the system, incorrect predictions could lead to instability in the system characterized by large swings in the demand.

Benefits For The Participating Consumers Of A Dr Event:

• Allows consumers to make informed decisions by providing highly detailed information

• Provides consumers with greater control over their electricity use when coupled with time – based rates, potentially saving money on their monthly electric bill

• Faster outage detection and restoration of service• Improved reliability of supply• Improved quality of supply• Options to save money by shifting loads from peak periods to

off – peak periods

According to studies conducted by Tata Power, a private utility in India, fully air-conditioned commercial buildings are contributing rapidly to this peak shortage. Air-conditioning in commercial and domestic buildings together makes ~40% of the electricity con-sumption in the utility’s consumer base (Tata Power 2012), thereby offering a potential resource for B2G (Buildings to Grid) integration in India. This potential will only increase with time, as 66% of the commercial stock projected to be in existence in 2030 is yet to be built (Kapoor et al. 2011), while electricity demand is growing at an annual rate of 12%–14% in the commercial sector (USAID-India 2013).It is therefore of paramount importance to apply and expand the markets for B2G technologies in India, by increasing the un-derstanding of the integration requirements between Demand Side Management (DSM) systems and the Indian electric grid modern-ization (also called the Smart Grid) activities, focusing primarily on existing and new commercial buildings and industrial facilities.

To this effect, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) has implemented several technological innovations to modernize the grid, resulting in an 80% reduction in technical and commercial losses, a 40% increase in reliability, and a customer satisfaction index of 88%. As an initiative to modernize the grid, TPDDL in 2013 set themselves up to implement the largest Pilot on Smart Grid and Auto Demand Response in India. TPDDL partnered with Honeywell to implement the Automated Demand Response pro-gram for its Commercial and Industrial consumers. Honeywell im-plemented the Automated Demand Response program for TPDDL and it is India’s first Commercial Automated Demand Response Project with 168 (projected 250) connected consumers with target load reduction of 34 MW during periods of peak demand.

TPDDL and Honeywell jointly implemented a Smart Grid Auto De-mand Response solution to increase operational efficiency, reduce technical and commercial losses, manage demand and enhance customer satisfaction.

True to an apt maxim, “The devil is in the detail”, Honeywell along with Tata Power has been instrumental in executing the ADR pilot for the chosen geography in Delhi. Honeywell India has proved to be an example of a truly “glocal” company; a global MNC with Indian presence for over 80 years. An advanced “Honeywell Auto-matic Demand Response” technology solution backed up by Hon-eywell’s strong on ground execution capability demonstrates the operational success of the pilot program and re - establishes long term focus of Honeywell in India.

SMART ENERGY


Infosys Leading The Way In Energy Efficiency In India

uilding sector is one of the largest energy intensive sector in India accounting for over 30 per cent of the total energy consumed in India. Out of this, more than 40 per cent of en-ergy in buildings is taken up by HVAC equipment (Heating, ventilation, and Air Conditioning), lighting and computer sys-tems. Intervening in these areas can draw attractive results environmentally as well as economically.

Global IT giant Infosys, with ten campuses across different cities in India, is leading the way to a sustainable growth. In-fosys’ commitment to energy efficiency dates back to 2008, when it set up a dedicated team - Green Initiatives - and

published its first sustainability report. At that time it made a decision that all new buildings in its campuses should aim for Platinum standard under the Indian Green Building Council LEED rating scheme, the country’s highest standard for building environmental performance. It now has over 5 million sq.ft. of highest rated buildings, with thirteen LEED India platinum rated and three GRIHA 5 Star rated buildings in India. Some of the Infosys buildings have achieved an EPI as low as 80 kWh/ sq. m. / Year - lowest in the industry.

Focused efforts on smart buildings sys-tems, retrofits, new building designs with an efficient envelope, and renewable en-ergy, have significantly reduced its ener-gy consumption in the last seven years. The high performance buildings built by Infosys have demonstrated that with to-day’s technology we can design buildings, which will consume one third of the ener-gy of normal buildings at no extra capital costs. Over the last seven years, it has been able to avoid consumption of over 880 million units of electricity, reducing its per capita energy consumption by a stag-gering 46 per cent as compared to 2008 levels.These achievements are all the more im-pressive given that most of these energy

efficiency investments have a payback of less than three years and can be easily replicated in other commercial buildings. Infosys has shown that reduction in ener-gy usage makes sense, both commercial-ly and environmentally.

Infosys realized that most buildings have over-designed systems due to use of thumb-rule methodology, change of us-age pattern, etc., leading to inefficient operations. Thus, it focused on bringing efficiency right from the design stage, starting from correct orientation and an ef-ficient building envelope, efficient systems design, right sizing of equipment, and au-tomation to eliminate inefficiencies.

While designing new, low-energy build-ings, Infosys also became aware of the potential for saving energy in their exist-ing buildings. The Infosys team, backed by the top management, started metering and monitoring each and every equipment and system to identify energy savings op-portunities and undertook massive deep green retrofit programme for its existing buildings.

These retrofits were undertaken in most of the energy intensive areas. The critical one being in the chiller plant room, UPS systems, and lighting systems. Some of the unique features of the chiller plant ret-rofit are elaborated below:

Infosys Leed India Platinum Rated Building In Bangalore

B




The steps taken have freed up almost a third of the space that was previously oc-cupied in the plant room. Retrofits in air conditioning systems have helped Infosys achieve about 13.5 MW connected load reduction in the last four years. Most ret-rofits have a short payback period of less than three years with the life of equipment being more than ten years, thus making them financially viable for implementation.Additionally, conventional UPS systems

have been replaced with energy efficient modular UPS systems to reduce installed capacity and energy consumption. Modu-lar UPS systems offer highest level of effi-ciency and flexibility through a unique sys-tem design with cutting-edge architecture, consisting of independent hot swappable modules- about 5 to 10 in number. These modules allow online interchangeability of UPS systems. Each module within the UPS system has a rectifier, inverter, static

bypass, and a processor, thereby ensur-ing continuous power supply even if one module of the entire system fails.

The average efficiency of the UPS system has improved by 18 per cent, thereby re-ducing energy use and energy costs to a great extent. This deep green retrofit has helped us achieve about 10 MW connect-ed load reduction in the last four years. For fiscal year 2015 alone, UPS retrofit

Chiller plant room after retrofit

Chiller Plant Room

Complete re-engineering of chiller plants minimized piping, eliminated use of balancing valves, thereby reducing pressure drop and right sizing the pumps

Primary secondary systems in chiller plants replaced with variable primary inline pumps, resulting into about 30 percent reduction in energy and about 45 percent reduction in equip-ment

In the air handling units, conventional fan system replaced with EC (Electronically Commu-tated) fans leading to nearly 50 percent reduction in energy

Variable speed drives installed in each and every equipment

Chiller plants are designed with series counter flow arrangement for optimum energy use

Reduction in the number of chiller plants from 54 to 41

Older air-cooled Variable Refrigerant Volume (VRV) units replaced with chilled-water-based units which are free from harmful refrigerants and require lower maintenance as compared to the previous system



Solar panels installed on car park area in Infosys Hyderabad

Infosys is striving to achieve its goal to source 100% of its electricity from renewables in the coming years. This fiscal, 29 per cent of its electricity requirements were met from re-newable sources. It has currently installed 2.3 MW of onsite solar power plants in India. In addition to onsite solar proj-ects, it is also setting up a 40MW off site grid connected solar project in Karnataka, India. It plans to increase the total installed capacity to 175 MW through onsite and offsite solar installations.

Roof painted white to minimize heat ingress into the building

Infosys roofs have been painted with High-albedo white paints (SRI value greater than 75 percent) to reduce heat gain and min-imize air conditioning loads. According to Infosys, this minimizes solar heat gain by reducing the roof’s surface temperature by up to 100C. Infosys has also taken up lighting system retrofit to optimize its lighting energy consumption. Conventional lighting fixtures have been replaced with efficient LED light fixtures and with essential controls such as occupancy and daylight sensors. This has led to a reduction of over 60 percent in the total lighting energy consumption.

has demonstrated a significant reduction of 4.4 MW in connected load. This retrofit has an attractive payback period of less than three years with system lasting for more than ten years.

Apart from undertaking new energy effi-cient buildings and deep retrofit projects in existing buildings, Infosys has redefined building designs by adopting innovative technologies such as radiant cooling- In-fosys SDB 1 in Hyderabad demonstrates the largest comparison of radiant and con-ventional cooling systems in India with real time data monitoring; radiant panel based cooling- This system installed in its building in Bangalore is a solution for ret-rofitting in existing buildings; and Radiflux radiant panels- latest in its kitty. With high quality engineering, Infosys has devel-oped Radiflux Radiant Panels in-house, which use chilled water for cooling. These

panels are two times more efficient than other products available in the market, take 50 per cent lesser time for installa-tion, and are economically viable.

Data is crucial for Infosys. It monitors each and every equipment and system in all its new buildings in real time, which helps to identify and correct inefficiencies. It has a central command center, which connects all building management systems and manages energy and other critical oper-ation across all our campuses from one single place. This has enhanced our oper-ative effectiveness by improving diagnos-tic capabilities and also giving recommen-dations for new building designs.

Infosys buildings having cutting- edge designs are highly resource efficient and naturally lit with access to outside views, creating a natural and comfortable en-

vironment for its occupants. Infosys has made an unassailable business case for large companies to invest in energy ef-ficiency - not just in India but across the globe. The wider impact of the initiatives, has been to kick-start a transformation of the energy market in India. Infosys has also improved the quality of consultants and vendors by pushing boundaries, questioning every assumption, and by setting new benchmarks.


Making Our Cities Smart Through Holistic Traffic Management

Worsening Traffic Congestion is Affecting our Lives

A Holistic Traffic Management Approach is Necessary for a Sustainable Solution

apid urbanization coupled with growing economic prosperity is making our cities very congested. With easy availability of finance, the number of vehicles on the road is increasing sharply. However, roads are not being built and upgraded fast enough to keep pace with the growth in vehicles. Public transportation investments are a possible solution, but these projects have long implementation horizons. Worsening road traffic congestion is affecting the quality of life, productivity, and competitiveness of our cities. This urban issue is more acute in metropolitan cities, which are also the economic nerve centers of the country. As we embark on making our cities smart, addressing the traffic congestion issue should assume high priority. This can unlock huge economic savings and improve the livability of our cities.

City and Traffic management authorities have implemented numerous projects to improve traffic flow. This includes intel-ligent traffic management systems, bus rapid transportation system, rail and road widening, and flyovers. These measures have seen varied levels of success.

Globally, Smart Transportation Solutions are being implemented to optimize traf-fic flows. But India has its own unique characteristics and challenges. For ex-ample, issues relating to rampant traffic rule violations, pedestrian management, encroachments, event-based disruptions and basic infrastructure constraints, etc. need to be managed. Smart transporta-tion solutions need to be rigorously local-ized to make them a success. A holistic and multi-pronged traffic management ap-proach is necessary for a practical solution that works in the Indian context. Exhibit 1 shows Frost & Sullivan’s recommended approach for holistic traffic management.

Source: Frost & Sullivan Analysis

R



The operational capacity of the roads needs to be in-creased to keep pace with the demand. Additionally, as our cities grow, the transportation patterns evolve. Infrastructure investments should be made with the long-term city master plan in mind. The benefits of infrastructure investments can be realized only in the longer term. A cursory study of traffic patterns in major cities shows that junctions are the hot spots of traffic congestion. Focused efforts should be made to streamline traffic flow at junctions of arterial roads. It can be through a combination of efforts including su-perior road quality at junctions, road upgrade, widen-ing, clear road markings etc.

Peak time road demand can be managed through community and workplace participation. Globally, many cities have staggered work timings as well as introduced congestion fee to manage peak demand.

Most major Indian cities have no mechanism of man-aging high volume pedestrian traffic. In many instanc-es, with no separate pedestrian ways, this traffic converges with the vehicular traffic. This causes seri-ous safety hazards as well as slowing down of traffic movement. Deploying wardens at crucial junctions to manage pedestrian traffic can be an effective ap-proach. In the long term, investments in sky walks, separate foot paths, and pedestrian fencing at the median and side of the road will reduce disruptions of vehicle flow and improve pedestrian safety. Highly congested cross-over points for multi-modal transpor-tation like railway stations, bus stations, markets, and shopping malls should be mandated to plan for unin-terrupted pedestrian ways.

These inputs should be visible at a city-wide traffic command and control room. Traffic management authorities can be supported by predictive traffic optimizing tools to drive effective decisions. This can form the basis for communicating location-based traffic advisories for the commuters. Cost-effective mediums such as radio broadcast, electronic signage, traffic portals, SMS or traffic optimizing applications should be promoted. Special emphasis should be laid on strengthening traffic response capabilities for unplanned incidents. This is typically triggered by vehicle break-down, accidents, or other unexpected episodes. Maintenance, repair work or traffic congestion triggered by planned events should be pre-empted and mitigation strategies should be im-plemented.

The core reason for traffic situation is that our urban master planning has been flawed and short sighted. With the emphasis on developing smart city plans, gov-ernments have a fresh opportunity to take a long range view of traffic management. Several technology solu-tions can provide deep transportation analytics capabil-ities. There is an also urgent need to bring specialized transportation management capabilities to the cities.

Real time traffic information can be developed through multiple inputs including:

1

3

5

2

4

Infrastructure Investments:

Better Demand Management Through Community Participation:

Pedestrian Management:

In general, enforcement of traffic laws in India is much below global standards. A concerted effort must be made to increase the enforcement standards through strict penalties and demerits on the license. Tech-nology should be leveraged to pros-ecute traffic violators with minimum human intervention. As the deploy-ment of CCTV cameras grows within our cities, it can easily be leveraged for traffic enforcement. A strong po-litical conviction will be necessary to implement such measures. Concert-

ed efforts need to be made to edu-cate all the stakeholders to improve the traffic situation in our cities. Driv-ing license certification levels should be raised. Driving simulation training should be encouraged. Pedestrians should be educated about their rights and duties to ensure their safety and minimize traffic disruption. The traffic management authorities must also invest in capability building of their field staff, especially for leveraging emerging technologies.

6 Enforcement and Education:

Better Transportation Planning And Analytics:

Traffic Information Management To Optimize Traffic Flow:

• Traffic cameras and sensors• Crowd sourcing from commuters• Manual on the ground monitoring and inputs• Through smart applications• Cellular information and Global Positioning systems• Aerial monitoring



Leveraging the above framework, smart traffic solutions should aim to deliver efficiency along two action streams:

Smart Solutions should Aim to Balance Road Demand with Capacity to Optimize Traffic Flow

Demand management strategies can be devel-oped through on-the-ground traffic surveys and cit-izen participation. Some possible ideas to consider are:

• Building an online community for voluntary staggered workplace timings to reduce peak time vehicles on road

• Encourage Multi-modal networks with prefer-ence for public transportation

• Encourage open source traffic information by promoting online applications that advise vehi-cle users on optimum traffic route options. Pro-mote such applications through social media.

• Roadside Electronic Traffic advisory to re-channelize traffic to avoid blocked roads where possible

Supply management can focus on initiating various steps including us-ing Information & Communication Technologies to improve traffic through-puts. The following steps can be implemented:

• Online e-portal deployment for better inter-departmental coordination and planning for repair and maintenance works, especially at junctions. Such activities should be permitted only during off-peak hours and dis-ruption time should be minimized.

• Parking guidance information as well as separate parking zones to avoid traffic slowdown, especially at office areas.

• Enhancing the quality of roads at junctions [Road marking, Road wid-ening, encroachment removal]

• Over bridge Pedestrian crossings at key junctions and flow regulation• Dynamic road dividers to channelize traffic flow depending on the peak

time demand changes• Emergency response team• Leveraging technology for debottlenecking

Demand [Road users] management

Supply [Road infrastructure] management



Traffic Management needs to be a CollectiveResponsibility for Optimum Results

Traffic management is generally perceived as the sole responsibility of the traffic police. However, a broader perspective is necessary. As shown in Exhibit 2, a holistic approach with active participation by governments of the city, state, along with the traffic police is nec-essary. Many cities around the world like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur have a fully empowered land transport authority with specialized skills for transport planning, research, asset management, maintenance, and optimization.

Active citizen participation through workplace, companies, and NGOs can deliver positive results. Citizens should be made partners in improving traffic conditions through education and incorporating community suggestions.

Private sector participation can bring expertize, resources, and latest technologies to help solve this key urban challenge. Urban Local Bodies can identify specific project components for private sector participation in traffic management. There could be various models of funding based on the level of engagement. Latest thinking is to tie-in project concessionaire performance levels through service level agreements. Public private partnership funding models can be developed to attract the right private sector partners.

Smart Traffic Solutions can be the Difference

ICT-enabled smart traffic solutions have a strong potential to make a difference in solving traffic congestion problems. How-ever, these solutions should be carefully adapted to each city’s unique characteristics and transport legacy. A holistic and long-term approach is necessary to truly unlock the benefits of the technology interventions. Learnings and best practices from other developing countries can be a good starting point. Even-tually, India will evolve its own model of solving traffic conges-tion challenges by leveraging smart technologies to improve the livability of our cities.

Source: Frost & Sullivan Analysis

By Kavan Mukhtyar, Senior Partner, Smart Cities Practice, Frost & Sullivan



G

Approach For Operational Efficiency In Smart Cities

By: Praful Gharpure, Architect – Urban Planner, Six Sigma Black Belt ASQ®, ITIL Consultant, Tata Consultancy Services, Mumbai

background

Journey So far

Defining Smart City

overnment of India recently launched “Digital India “and “Smart City “Initia-tives. Both these align to a common goal for a transparent, expeditious, economical service delivery As part of Smart City Program government has initiated process for development of 100 cities to meet the demands of its rapidly growing and urban population. This effort will include enhancing the services extended by municipal corpo-rations and revamping of existing city infrastructure as the migrant popula-tion shifts into urban areas. The focus is on sustainable and inclusive devel-

opment. The initiative promotes cre-ation of a replicable model which will act like a light house to other aspiring cities (Smart City Guidelines 2015). As part of the initiative, stage I has been completed with states shortlisting the cities for the program. The stage 2 of the program constitutes challenge round where in proposals from these cities shall be assessed as part of competition for further shortlisting. One of the assessment areas shall be the Operational Smartness plan for the city which includes incorporating smart solutions for bringing operation-

al efficiencies in cities aligned to citi-zen’s needs and requirements.

This paper is an attempt to bring out a approach to fulfill the key requirement of stage 2 of the initiative i.e. Oper-ational Efficiency through a model which can be replicated across cities. In order to achieve the Operational ef-ficiency the usage of Information and Communication technology (ICT) is expected to be leveraged to enhance the service delivery and end user ex-perience.

Government of India, through Department of Information Technology, (DIT) launched National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in 2004 with a vision i.e. ”Make all Govern-ment services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common ser-vice delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man “.For the im-plementation of NeGP, DIT has visualized creation of the Common and Support In-frastructure like National/State Wide Area Networks, National/State Data Centers,

Common Services Centers & Electronic Service Delivery Gateways.

Thus the ground work for the service delivery in digital format is reasonably in place with IT implementation across majority of departments providing citizen services. The need of the hour is to bring these services under one single delivery channel for user to avail those. In journey toward Smart Cities it is equally important to provide seam less navigation and main-tain the linkage of identities created for a user with each provider.

By definition a smart city is the one that has digital technology embedded across all service delivery functions which au-thorities extend. Once the service provider agencies attain a level of maturity in terms of digital service delivery the overall vision of smart city shall become a reality and lead to fulfilment of Digital India dream. All these services anchor upon the end user who is the citizen i.e. customer of the

service. Every City system is composed of a physical infrastructure components like roads, water, Power, Sewerage sys-tem and need to be backed by social in-frastructure consisting schools, hospitals, recreation spaces etc. Along with these there are various services that are needed to be part of city as a system since these provide employment opportunities to citi-zens. The challenge and opportunity lie

in creating and maintaining a balance be-tween provisions of these in sync with end user demand. Cities become “smart” by smoothing the demand and stabilizing the supply, which ultimately scales and opti-mizes a city system’s capacity to provide the level and quality of services to people & business. A typical service catalogue is given in illustration I below.

SMART GOVERNANCE


Voice of Customer (VOC) & Critical to Quality Parameters (CTQs)

For a user of urban services, there are some basic requirements which are re-ferred to as ‘Voice of Customer” in pro-cess improvement initiatives. On similar lines there are certain “Critical to Quality”

(CTQs)” parameters for the services un-der consideration. In event there is a har-mony amongst these two, the service de-livery can see a transformation leading to the City / Urban Centre becoming an agile

one. Smart City Plans should aim to anal-yse the needs of the end-user and pave way for probable approach for fulfilling the Vision of Smart Cities.

The end user of a service is the custom-er and fulfilment of customer requirement is key to success of any service. In the context of Smart Cities these customers are not only the Citizens, but business houses and even Administration also is a customer in given set of services men-

tioned above. The quality of service is determined by the level of fulfilment of commitment to the parameters of the ser-vice commonly referred as Service level Agreements (SLAs). These are often criti-cal for quality of service. Further there are certain end user expectations from the

service which they avail, while planning of the service; in event these are not consid-ered the service may end up with minimal customer base eventually leading to its failure. These end user expectations are referred as “Voice of Customer”.

Illustration 1

Some of key VOCs are• Ability of citizen to demand a service of their choice.• Entrepreneurs to get forum to extend the services to customers.• Administration to get revenue due for service extended.• Proactive prevention of city disturbances for smooth infrastructure functioning.• Monitoring of city functions and getting early warning signals.• Citizen expecting a service at doorstep or in neighbourhood to avoid visit to government offices.

SMART GOVERNANCE


ICT as Catalyst for Smart Service Delivery

Dovetailing IT Service Management Principles

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) gives channel for government to reach citizen, at the same time it also opens up ways and means for citizen to reach out to administration. One of key benefit ICT can bring in is the creation of information gateway between end users and service providing departments thereby delivering the services to residents at their door step. A mechanism of information exchange can in-duce a multiplier effect by extending additional services with the information available on data systems. As part of Smart City Plans the avenues of information exchange and new service enablement need to be explored. The “Voice of Customer” can be a good feeder for the development of the service catalogue and their fulfilment with informa-tion exchange. The concept is elaborated in illustration 2 below.

In the context of Smart City, IT Service Management methods adopted in elec-tronic service delivery in global orga-nizations can be effectively leveraged. These are structured around processes of “Service delivery” and “Service Sup-port” closely knit by a Central Helpdesk function. The Service delivery procedures

cover the mechanism to extend a service based on user demand with due consid-eration of infrastructure capacity and in-terrelated aspects ranging from harmony with other services already functional to financial viability of extending the service with optimised infrastructure provision / augmentation. The Service Support pro-

cedures are focused resolving on the end user notified issues related to the services and is primarily concerned with ensuring the access to the appropriate services to support the functions which a service of-fers. Illustration 3 outlines the same.

Illustration 2

SMART GOVERNANCE


The way forward

While we work towards action plans towards Smart Cities, e governance operating framework is also needed to support in-teroperability amongst service delivery channels, across different domains, to complement Smart City Functions. This shall help expand the the Service Catalogue to cover a varied range of services. The framework described in this discussion shall enable users to get involved in system and use the service leading to wide-ranging benefits there by evolving Smart Cities.

The IT solutions deployed across globe use the best practices principles of service delivery and management. The frame-work outlined above supports the key aspects of service provision, following are some major ones.

• Provision of central help desk allowing end user to report issue or to request a new service. This allows citizen to re-quest a service of their choice.

• New service is assessed for need and viability –Technical / Financial for solutions.• Issues are logged and seen if repeat ones with historical trends, if repeat ones then taken up for permanent resolution.• New service request if viable then based on infrastructure new/existing is clubbed in rollout calendar maintained cen-

trally.• Each infrastructure item is mapped. The changes are documented and updated for each such item. This covers physi-

cal assets in service provisions like roads / water/power lines treated as augmentable item and mapped based as geo referenced objects.

• The infrastructure is assessed for usage for one / multiple services optimising the overall setup.• The structure thus aids to gather citizen view of services and plan for the same, the concept of release calendar makes

option of structured rollout of similar services together.• The approach has potential streamline the current tendering process by documenting scope as per end user require-

ment.• The consultants working with government also can get necessary inputs to help refine their detailed project reports.• Citizen can get the voice logged for a service which they visualise and for which they are even willing to pay making the

service delivering organizations financially stronger.

Illustration 3

SMART GOVERNANCE


While a lot is being dis-cussed and written on Smart Cities, these dis-

cussions tend to focus on lofty urban planning per-

spectives and complicated economic hypotheses. This has resulted in Smart Cities

becoming something of an unfathomable doctrine rather than something that

makes sense to Mr. Ev-eryman. There are some

fundamental questions that people have been asking

about Smart Cities, and they need to be answered.

Which are the services that a smart city will offer which are not available in ‘normal’ cities? Are we just talking of township level services provided at the level of an entire city, or is there something more that citizens of Smart Cities can look for-ward to?

UW

AP The objective of Indian government’s Smart Cities initiative is to improve the quality of urban living for all residents with the use of smart technologies. That said, the transformation from a ‘normal’ city to a ‘smart city’ is more evolution than revolution. A smart city is different than normal cities in terms of liveability, workability and sustainability. The information and communica-tions technology (ICT) component used in infrastructure will do most of the heavy-lifting work such as improving infrastructure, environment and governance through data-driven systems. Apart from highly advanced infrastructure and evolved resi-dential experience, citizens of Smart Cities will also get advan-tages like: • Overall digital connectivity, which means that broadband

communications infrastructure and innovative services will combine to meet the needs of the Government and its em-ployees as well as citizens and businesses

• Collective intelligence, which not only helps urban plan-ners and increases the city’s competitiveness but also pro-vides opportunities for active participation from citizens in processes that make Smart Cities smarter

• Open government thanks to open data.

Exclusive Interview

WithAnuj Puri

Anuj PuriChairman & Country Head

JLL India

INTERVIEW


It has been said that Smart Cities will need smart citizens to be truly viable. What does this mean? Will only tech-savvy younger citizens be able to derive and enjoy all the benefits of a smart city, or can people without a technological background also benefit?

Is it easier and more viable to launch a ‘greenfield’ smart city in an un-touched location from the ground up or convert an existing ‘brownfield’ city into a smart one?

Will the formation of one smart city cause property prices to rise unnaturally in adjoining areas, even if these areas do not provide the quality of life that the smart city does? This has been observed happening with large integrated townships.

Given the pattern we have observed in all newly-emerg-ing locations, will property rates in Smart Cities be driv-en up by speculative investment, or is there some kind of built-in factor which will prevent this?

UW

UW

UW

UW

It would be a mistake to assume that only high-earning college graduates or tech-savvy younger citizens will receive the benefits in Smart Cities. The objective of this movement is to improve the quality of urban living for all residents, not just the young and rich. Nevertheless, Smart Cities will still have to ‘sell’ themselves to the common man, who will need to be made aware of how this transfor-mation could improve their lives. With the deep penetration of smart-phones into our society, getting citizens to understand the value of connectivity should not be too big a challenge.

The evolutionary transformation (an existing city’s development into a Smart City) will prove to be more affordable than revolutionary (Greenfield) develop-ment. However, revolutions inspire a lot more emotion and commitment than evolutionary changes. India needs more retrofitting of existing cities and in-frastructure through the Smart Cities initiative, and not just development of Greenfield cities. It would be easier to develop Greenfield Smart Cities, except for the aspect of land acquisition. The current controversies associated with land acquisition bill and the lack of an environment that enables land acquisition easily, seamlessly and without delays would be a serious bottleneck in positioning these Green-field Smart Cities. The advantages for positioning Greenfield Smart Cities are numerous: proactive planning and design would mean that there are little or no difficulties related to upgradation and/or improvement of smart systems. Greenfield Smart Cities would also allow for better management and forecast-ing for budgetary expenses, and it would be easier to expand capacities, with minimal disruption of city operations, at a later stage.

Areas with better infrastructure will fetch better real estate value due to higher demand and hence, in Smart Cities formation, land and property values will increase. The implementation of Smart Cities will have to be looked at in totality instead of a few locations in isolation.

If Smart City principles are implemented strictly, these property mar-kets will address demands of the end-users and not speculative inves-tors. The formation of housing development corporations and other authorities as part of smart governance will prevent speculation from these realty markets.

AP

AP

AP

AP

Given the level of services that will be offered in Smart Cities, will it in fact be more expensive to live in them? Will residents have to pay a big share of the implied expenses (as they do in townships) or will government subsidies take care of it?

UW

AP

Quality OfLife

COMPETITIVENESS

InvestmentOppurtunities

Employment

SMART CITYTo think that better services will come with additional costs is a mistake, since the smart initiatives employed in these cities will reduce many costs and improve produc-tivity, in turn reducing the burden on their residents. Also, Smart City implementation will mostly come as a government subsidy and not as a loaded expense on residents.

INTERVIEW

URBANA WORLD July-Aug 2015www.UrbanaWorld.com 40www.UrbanaWorld.com

LAVASA - SMART CITY IN THE HILLS

Overview:

About Lavasa

Lavasa’s approach in the current system of smart cities

ll over the world, concrete steps are being tak-en to make a special type of city: a smart city. These cities use new ideologies to help them reach their diverse goals more efficiently. Some cities are being made smarter, and some new cities are being designed to be smart from their very beginnings. A common goal is to provide cost efficient services to their residents. Anoth-er goal is to make cities that are attractive from a variety of view-points namely for example, to make cities that are both economically vibrant and also environmentally friendly. As environ-mental and energy problems grow increasingly severe, and the need for sustainable growth in-creases, smart cities are becoming more nec-essary and more popular.

Lavasa City is being developed by Lavasa Corporation Limit-ed, a subsidiary of Hindustan Construction Company Limited. Lavasa provides multiple options for housing including rental housing, apartments and villas. Our vision is to develop Lav-asa city as a 365 day economy which provides opportunities for its residents and visitors to live, work, learn and play in harmony with nature. Lavasa city is located at a 3 hour- drive from Mumbai and spread across a picturesque landscape of over 10,006 acres. Meticulously master planned by leading U.S based town planners - HOK International Ltd., the Lavasa city plan has won several international awards. The integrated development at Lavasa will include five self-sustaining towns with a permanent population of 240,000 people with facilities for approximately two million tourists per annum and an em-ployment base of 80,000.AThe Lavasa approach takes into account both the economy and the environment, can handle changing times and social trends, and supports safe, interesting, and prosperous life-styles. The Lavasa model can be best explained as follows, where the denizens are the central focus. Lavasa Corpora-tion has modeled Lavasa city as a hierarchy of infrastructure that have different functions and purposes. Envisioning itself as the first smart city of India, Lavasa’s vision is that each infrastructure layer will interoperate under the control of the smart-city management infrastructure to support a way of life for residents where they can Live, Work Learn & Play in har-mony with nature. The following points elucidate the various infrastructures in place at Lavasa city.

CASE STUDIES


A B CUrban

infrastructure at Lavasa

How is the daily life layer impacted by

this model?

Daily-life services

infrastructure

Smart City Management

services infrastructure

This layer contains infrastructure that supplies actual services to residents and is organized into optimal func-tional units based on the geograph-ical and physical characteristics of residents. The urban infrastructure at Lavasa includes:

This layer is made up of a city’s fa-cilities and other services, including healthcare, education, administration and finance. The daily-life services infrastructure coordinates with the ur-ban infrastructure to supply residents with a range of different services. Lav-asa has the following inclusions in this layer

This represents the resident’s way of life and how people use the infrastructure to Live, Work, Learn, and Play. Lavasa seeks to improve the quality of life by un-derstanding residents’ genuine needs and then disassembling and reassembling the functions of the corresponding layer (dai-ly-life services infrastructure) accordingly.

This infrastructure uses IT to provide information platforms for linking within and between different types of infra-structure. Its role includes information management, operational manage-ment, and equipment operation within the city. At Lavasa the smart city man-agement infrastructure constitutes of:

Roads & Transportation- Snarl free roadsWaste and Water Re-cycling Treatment PlantsWi-fi enabled cityTele- communications- High Speed ConnectivityCitizen Contact CentreIntegrated waster shed man-agementBio-degradable Garbage management systems

1.

2.

3.4.

5.6.

7.

E-GovernanceGIS mappingHome automationSmart surveillance

1.2.3.4.

City Management Services Apollo Hospital and Public Heath Care Centers, Well-ness and well being centersEducation institutes

1.2.

3.

1. Pedestrian Friendly Walkways2. Assisted Living3. Walk to work offices4. A myriad of Leisure options 5. A range of hotels & food options

CASE STUDIES


very activity in our day to day life run primarily on two natural resources: En-ergy and Water. With emerging trends in urbanization, managing utilities in urban areas will prove to be a decisive factor in the success of new develop-ments and retrofitted neighbourhoods.

When we talk about urbanization as a

reality today, we must ensure that wa-ter and power scarcity do not end up being another reality in a smart city. So the call for Smart Cities must be looked at more as a call for bringing in tremendous efficiencies in Energy and Water production, distribution and utili-zation. With so much being written and spoken about smart cities, one must

understand that the real challenge sur-rounding electricity and water is their availability for the emerging smart cit-ies to establish a balanced eco system.

In today’s world of interconnected technol-ogies and cyberphysical systems, it has become virtually impossible to think of any one feature of a smart city as a singular, independent field. Automated watering of green spaces in a community and its man-agement for example, involves linking the water management system, the weather forecast, the inputs from the ground water

and soil moisture sensors and the horticul-tural database. The frequency and need to water plants and lawns will take into ac-count the species of the plant that will be watered, the ground moisture content to decide on the need or lack of more water and the weather forecast for that day to decide the amount of watering required. Using just one parameter may result in precious water being either wasted un-necessarily or the plant being under wa-tered leading to the loss of that plant.When a non-essential service such as green space management involves so many parameters, then one can imagine the complexity of integration at various levels including customer engagement that essential utility services like water and electricity need. Given the importance of these utilities in any habitable commu-nity, they take on the role of the backbone of the services offered in any smart neigh-bourhood.In a smart city this backbone then holds the rest of the services up-right and acts as the deciding factor while comparing services offered by competing community developers to the potential residents / users of the community.

The decreasing supply in the face of ever

increasing demand makes it almost im-possible for supply and demand to find a common level ground. If necessity is the mother of invention, then demand gives birth to innovation. Think tanks, brain storming and simple need to replace ar-chaic traditional methods in favour of modern trends have been seen in every industry sector. Utilities have been no ex-ception.

“When a non-essen-tial service such as green space man-

agement involves so many parameters, then one can imag-

ine the complexity of integration at vari-ous levels including customer engage-ment that essential utility services like

water and electricity need.”

“The decreasing supply in the face of ever increasing

demand makes it al-most impossible for supply and demand to find a common

level ground. If ne-cessity is the mother

of invention, then demand gives birth

to innovation.”

ELECTRICITY AND WATER UTILITY NEXUS – A

POTENTIAL GAME CHANGER FOR SMART CITIES

E

SMART ENERGY

By Phoenix IT Solutions


A Published Study Of The Emerging Trends In Power Utility Sector Shows That:

1 3

4

2

Energy efficiency policies have become a phenomenon worldwide – The need to utilize the energy that is produced by various means effi-ciently and effectively has been the primary concern of governments as well as power utility companies. Studies show that In the United Sates, more than half of US states have now officially enacted quan-titative energy efficiency targets, and around 30 states offer concrete incentives to utilities that drive reductions in energy demand. Some states have instituted a framework for severing the tie between utility energy sales and revenue. European government’s member recently announced their action plans to achieve an EU-wide 20 percent reduc-tion in energy consumption by 2020, as part of a sweeping Energy Ef-ficiency Directive. In India programs such as the R-APDRP ( Restruc-tured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme) have been put in place .Targets under this initiative are to be achieved by strengthening and upgrading the sub-transmission and distribution system of high density load centres like towns and industrial centres.

The portfolio of energy production shows that natural gas and renew-able energy are cutting down coal based energy production. Clean, sustainable power is the new mantra.

How should a bakery respond when, each year, more and more of its customers want to start baking their own cookies? Utilities are exploring ways to thrive in a distributed-gen-eration world - The challenge for utilities in the coming year and beyond will bank on making sure that they can participate in this trend and lead by example. Leasing solar panels to customers and creating subsidiar-ies that install rooftop solar outside their reg-ulated service territory are some such prac-tices already in use.

Though installations of smart meters saw a meteoric rise in numbers, dynamic pricing programs are gaining wide acceptance and are taking over the smart meter frenzy. As in the transportation industry some utilities are emerging as leaders in applying dynamic pricing to better engage their customers.

5 Fundamental changes in the electric grid’s supply and demand profile require utilities to think creatively about how to manage this new equation. Demand response will aid the grid’s transition towards renewable energy supply.

On the supply side, deep investments in solar and wind are bringing into focus the uncertainty of these sources. It is a well-known truth that solar electricity produc-tion grinds to a halt in the evening, and that wind speeds often pick up after elec-tricity consumers have gone to sleep.

On the demand side, electric vehicles and the most energy-intensive appliances of homes put substantial pressure on the grid at certain times of a day.

A mix of smart technologies, educated and engaged customers and a planned demand response will help bring electric-ity production and consumption into an

alignment. This will also ensure that the grid functions efficiently. While innovative energy storage strategies may play a role in balancing the equation between power supply and demand, other more proven and more cost-effective options will be re-quired in the near term.

Water utilities, the other partner in Wa-ter Power nexus saw a universal decline in trust. There are many reasons for this loss of trust. As households became more educated and affluent, they are willing to pay more for safe water. They can afford it and do so for health reasons. Even with the combined costs of bottled water, point-of-use treatment systems and water utility bills, expenses seldom exceeded 2 per-cent of household incomes, which people can afford easily. The onus of arresting leakages and thefts during distributions and installing sensors to check purity of water rests with the water utility compa-nies and customers are willing to pay for the cost if it ensures pure water. Ensuring quality water to consumers requires elec-tricity. Thus one must keep in mind the fact that wasting water indirectly leads to wast-ing electricity.

Having said that, the trends in customer engagement have undergone a sea

“Ensuring quality water to consumers requires electricity. Thus one must keep in mind the fact that wasting water indi-

rectly leads to wast-ing electricity.”

SMART ENERGY


SMART ENERGY

There are multiple solutions emerging, using a variety of advanced computation-al methods taking into account accurate forecasting. There is a humongous role for technology to play to address these chal-lenges in the Electricity – Water nexus. Phoenix IT Solutions through their mPow-er suite of software products in the Smart Utilities, Smart Grid and Smart Cities, have contributed in Energy & Water Manage-ment across multiple projects in India and Asia. One of the recent implementations is in Lodha Palava Smart City in Kalyan, Mumbai. The mPower system implement-ed for Energy and Water management in Lodha Palava captures data, measures, analyses and reports consumer critical in-formation at the command centre as well as to the consumer. It has exhaustive CIS (customer information system) with mod-ules for billing and collections for Energy & Water and a robust CRM system for customer on boarding, request manage-ment and incident management. The MIS module generates a dashboard for the consumer, which can be accessed from the Lodha Palava resident portal as well as on the android and iOS mobile apps. The system seamlessly integrates with other external systems including Water

SCADA, Vendor Management, GIS, Video Surveillance, Access Control, Smart Card and the Central Command Centre.In the upcoming Smart City project in Gurgaon (NCR region), called Wave City, Phoenix will be implementing the mPow-er modules for billing, MDM (Meter Data Management) and M-DAS (Meter Data Acquisition System) for gas, water and electricity.

As part of the CSR activity, Phoenix ad-opted “Kirlampudi”, a neighbourhood in Visakhapatnam. The CSR team of Phoe-nix conducted resident engagement work-shops and outreach campaigns to work with the residents and bring in awareness about the existing challenges and the know-how to address such challenges. A baseline study has been undertaken in water and electricity usage and consump-tion patterns to show to the residents the difference in consumption and usage be-fore and after the campaign. Rain water harvesting, roof top solar, Smart Street lights with sensors & emergency buttons are being promoted as part of the Citizen Engagement programs. A detailed study is being conducted to implement a mi-cro-grid in conjunction with the local Civic

Authorities and the Resident Welfare As-sociation of Kirlampudi.

Energy and water touch all human lives and therefore their management along with customer engagement will form the focus of all innovation in the coming years. Thus, apart from technological in-terventions, Phoenix is thoroughly work-ing in the field and on the ground to bring about the change we wish to see in the community.

change in recent times. In the past, utility customers were simply energy or water consumers, power flow was one way from generation to load, and demand was fairly predictable. This situation has inverted, as consumers are sometimes becoming

energy producers resulting bi-directional flow of power and variability in demand. Consumers need to be educated in pru-dent use of water and electricity and that both use precious natural resources be-fore they reach the end user. The close

intertwined existence of water and power leads to saving in both or wastage of both essential commodities. Utilities are seek-ing better ways to engage with customers and manage and optimize these new lev-els of complexity.

Smart cities must be more livable, sustainable and efficient for their resi-dents. Smart cities are not possible without active involvement of citizens. Which is why, well edu-cated, well informed and healthy citizens are the key to successful smart cities.


Smart Cities – A Primer On The International Scenario

ccording to a study conducted by Frost & Sullivan, five years from now the global smart city market will be worth 1.5 trillion USD, and another five years thereon, it is estimated that 60% of the human population will re-side in cities. That is like 4.6 billion human beings. At the very outset it may be mentioned, that world over there are 600 cities which are expect-ed to make this cut. Cities have no choice but to be “smart” if a certain basic quality of life is to be assured to its citizens. In developed nations the figures are expected to touch as high as 80%. As one would imagine, city planners have a serious problem at hand as they go about re-script-ing their designs. A convergence of technology and varied stakeholders from sectors such as energy, infra-structure, IT, telecom & government, is the need of the day. Arguably, the “smart parameters” succinctly cap-tured are: energy, buildings, mobility, healthcare, infrastructure, technolo-gy, governance, education & smart citizen. Expectedly, the cities would have to qualify in at least 4-5 of these parameters.

It is pretty much clear why smart cit-ies are needed, but what yet remains unclear is the definition of the term. The conflict arises because of mis-match of expectations. World over, people migrate to cities because they aspire for a better quality of life, gainful employment, and higher investment opportunities. At the core is economic activity and employment opportunity which make cities different from each other. “A better quality of life” would entail affordable housing, water sup-ply, sanitation, electric supply, clean air, healthcare, education, security, entertainment, sports, efficient urban mobility and high-speed internet con-nectivity. The third point is a natural offshoot of the first two. If they are in place, investment avenues open up accordingly.A study was conducted

with city leaders and service providers from about 30 European cities which were predominantly from Germany. It revealed expectation gaps, but they were not really insurmountable. Ser-vice providers are often too technical in approach and skirt the real issues that cities face, which leaves town planners in doubt whether the spe-cifics needs have really been com-prehended. Often, there are existing systems already in place and the la-cunae lies right there – in integration. Many city planners are anxious to engage with single vendors and one technology only. Notwithstanding this

may be desirable, but from a practical standpoint it is constrained as the en-tire issue is not only complex, but dis-parate as well. Interestingly, service providers complain that they are nev-er really shown the complete picture and hence it becomes very difficult to understand the overarching agenda and offer solutions accordingly. For example, traffic management as a test case may involve dealing with multiple government agencies, and the coordi-nation exercise becomes onerous.

Ease of being able to move from point A to point B is a salient feature and may even be considered as a “must have” feature. Seoul, Singapore, Yo-kohama, Barcelona are all considered to be smart cities and have a sound transport system. The transport sys-tem and road infrastructure should encourage walking and cycling as vi-able alternatives, to balance some of the excess load caused by vehicular traffic. The cities are planned in such a way, that pedestrians get prominence.

The scope of such projects is very large, and PPP models have to be put in place to make them viable. The technical expertise lies with the private sector and their participation must be encouraged. However, there are concerns around transparency and accountability which needs to be addressed. Most importantly, procure-ment lifecycles need to be shortened, and timely payment mechanisms are to be put in place. Working capital re-quirements is usually high. Experience also shows that citizen’s participation is imperative. After all, they are the primary stakeholders and successful movements worldwide have been driv-en by the citizens of that place. It may be said that there isn’t a single city yet which meets all parameters. Largely, it is still at a conceptualization stage in most parts of the world, as policymak-ers and private bodies work towards eking out city-specific solutions.

By: Soumitra Dasgupta, Deputy Manager, NASSCOM

In Europe, municipalities have drawn up specific smart-city ini-tiatives and pilot projects are un-derway. An old industrial area in Spain is being converted to an attractive city district which will offer energy efficient residential & official buildings, public green spaces, and knowledge-sharing environment which will foster a culture of innovation. Several tech firms are researching and devel-oping products that can be used in such transformational cases, where the difference to be made is perhaps incremental, as against radical changes elsewhere. Ad-mittedly, the market remains at a nascent stage. The pilots, nearly 50 of them running all over Eu-rope have still not addressed the scalability conundrum. City offi-cials and service providers alike, are not exhibiting enough confi-dence in investing in large-scale demonstrations. The need for the two groups to talk, is discernible. The EU has taken steps in that di-rection by creating the European Innovation Partnership for smart cities, a programme designed to attract large-scale investments from a consortium of EU cities and service providers. It is also a plat-form for shared learning.

A

SMART CITY


City Safety – The First Step in The Smart City Journey

hundred years ago, only 10% of our population lived in cities. Today, over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and this trend of mas-sive urbanization continues at an un-abated pace.

UN has projected that by 2050, almost 75% of the world population will live in cities. We are living in what has been termed as the “century of the city”— the century in which the world popula-tion goes past a tipping point of more people living in urban areas than in rural areas and where the dynamics of cities largely shape our world.

India urban population has been rap-idly growing from 286 million in 2001 to 377 million in 2011, constituting 31.16% of the country’s population. This is expected to reach 590 million by 2030, nearly 40% of the Country’s

population and contributing 70% to the country’s GDP.

As cities evolve to become massive megapolises’, the challenges of en-suring safety for the citizens is be-coming increasingly complex. The aspect of safety must be egalitarian in that social status should not be de-terminants that define the “degree” of safety proffered to citizens.

A city needs to provide assurance to its citizens and the aspect of safety straddles multiple areas namely Di-saster Mitigation and Management, Anti-terrorist measures, 24 hours Surveillance, Child & Disabled friend-ly measures, Fire Safety, ommunity based Security Support, Early warn-ing systems , Resilience to Natural & Man Made Disasters Rapid Response Teams etc.

Technology can help here, from ener-gy-efficient street lighting to systems that allow many different local agen-cies to view the same data and or-chestrate the most optimal response to incidents.

Cities, with rapidly expanding pop-ulations and overstretched financial resources, need to become more in-novative in devising solutions to urban security.

Safe cities are those that assure their citizenry a sense of security that adds up to an optimal quality of life. History is witness to the fact that Cities that provided safety and took care of its citizens have been at the forefront of economic and commercial growth and will continue to lead the charge in their aspiration to become Smart/er Cities.

A

SAFE CITY

By Lux Rao, Country Leader - Future Cities, HP


How can Technology help in ensuring a City Safety?At the core of a technology oriented solution, lies the capability to garner multitudes of data, process & assimilate the same and derive meaningful insights & Predictive Analytics that enable Prevention, Response Optimization and Rapid Recovery.

The Predict, Prevent and Pro-active Perfor-mance Methodology ensures a holistic ap-proach to defining and implementing Safety standards in the ever changing complexities of Modern Cities.

Predict Prevent

Perform Pro-active

The ability to create the links between structured and unstructured data is the key to generating new insights. HP Technologies that include Au-tonomy & IDOL provide the ability to identify these correlations, which means they can pre-dict possible outcomes before they happen.

Technology enables these correlations and en-ables different departments to leverage these insights to make needed changes in policy, pro-cesses, and people (such as possible training needs or necessary communications).

The ability to have visibility into structured and unstructured data across multiple departments can help chart a course of behavior where mul-tiple departments would team up for an integrat-ed response plan. Having advanced information means it could use some intervention proce-dures to stop a situation from escalating and prevent incidents.

The ability to identify an event before it escalates and prevent a serious situation from developing provides a powerful demonstration to all those involved of the potential of a Technology Solution

This approach is the heart of the New Style of IT and Partnership where all con-stituents are engaged, they leverage resources, and become more efficient and effective from having a more holistic view.

At the core of HP Technology Stack is the Autonomy’s Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) that offers a single processing layer thereby automatically unlocking information insights across all information channels - structured and/or unstruc-tured.

SAFE CITY

May-June 2015www.UrbanaWorld.com 48

This tiered, open and fault-tolerant architecture provides for easy re-pair or routine maintenance of the various system components, the enhancement and introduction of new data sources and analysis / vi-sualization capabilities, and updates to/future exploitation of the overall services (e.g., the addition of new system APIs for external system use)—all while maintaining ongoing operations.

All data is processed by a centralised data center supported by HP servers and infrastructure. HP networking ensures bandwidth-intensive data, such as video, is delivered to the data center efficiently. The virtual-ized compute and storage systems also provide for very high levels of IT asset utilization, energy efficien-cy, and the ability to readily scale the system for future growth.

Improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists;

Tackle inefficiencies by creating a single unified layer across all data silos;

Gather statistical information for analysis and planning;

Be predictive instead of reactive;

Enforce laws and reduce violations;

Expected Outcomes:

A Typical Surveillance SolutionThe solution is basically structured around

Step 1:

1

2 4

3Source data capture and storage,

Analysis of data to derive video object and event information together with other Big Data intelligence,

Providing these unified views to a wide range of agencies, other government departments, emergency services, and other operations centers. The Technology Stack provides a platform that unifies the control and monitoring functions of physical security, building and traffic management, and computer aided dispatch systems to name a few.

Fusing that information with other physical security informa-tion against a set of configurable business rules to provide a unified view.

The Information flow can be in myriad forms and can pan across documents, emails, video, chat, phone calls, and application data at the same time. As data is stored in a variety of repositories, IDOL streamlines information processing across net-works, the web, the Cloud, smartphones, tablets, and sensors. In effect bringing a consolidated view of information wherever it is and deriving in-time insights that could make a sea of difference in security incidents’ prevention and control

SAFE CITY

www.UrbanaWorld.com May-June 2015 49

C

Evolving Role of Telecom Operators in The Smart City

Partner Ecosystem

ities traditionally rely on telecom op-erators for a range of connectivity services. Some cities that have em-barked on creating their own infra-structure still rely on telecom opera-tors for services to design, implement, operate and repair. With the advent of smart cities, the role of telecom oper-ators has just gotten more significant in the smart city partner ecosystem.

Conventionally telecom operators provide the connectivity network in-frastructure. Smart cities will enable operators to penetrate adjacent mar-ket verticals and achieve significant revenue growth from integrated data offerings. However, with the addition-

al layers of ICT requirements in smart cities, telecom operators have an ad-vantage to offer the higher forms of value added services by providing across the value chain resulting in tighter integration in the ecosystem, and improvement in Average Reve-nue Per User (ARPU). With Telcos under severe stress smart cities solu-tions enable operators to penetrate adjacent market verticals and achieve significant revenue growth and a higher ARPU.

The network operator has the oppor-tunity to emerge as a central player in the smart city value chain and as a result, has the opportunity to pur-

sue multiple value streams. Global references include Telefónica’s ma-chine-to-machine service platform re-ceives data from over 12000 sensors covering an area of approximately 35 sq. km wirelessly connected through the backbone network. Deutsche Telekom in Friedrichshafen in south-ern Germany is using smart city proj-ects as part of a broader research and development programme designed to create commercial propositions that deliver a return on investment . Within India Telcos can play an active role as an ecosystem orchestrator by building capabilities to:

Biju Kadapurath is PwC’s international expert on Smart Cities and Re-gional Leader for the Government and Public Sector Practise. He has worked on smart city projects in several countries and is a preferred speaker at leading smart city events.

Manage the interface with city governments to understand objec-tives, impact metrics, and prospective smart city service opportuni-ties as well as address policy and funding requirements

Manage relationships with real estate developers and identify op-portunities for smart services targeted to the needs of their custom-er base including but not limited to industrial clusters

Manage the relationship with vertical sector services providers (e.g. utilities) as both go-to-market partners for smart services and pro-spective clients for smart value added services

Work with technology partners to define the value proposition, assess service feasibility, and plan the go-to market approach

1

2

34

The views expressed here are those of the au-thors and do not reflect the views of Pricewa-terhouseCoopers, its partners or member firms[ [

SMART IT & COMMUNICATION


BIM in Smart Citieshe recently concluded Expo in Delhi ‘Smart City – India’ saw a variety of prospective players/organization from across the Globe vying to participate in this new venture announced by the current Indian Government. Most of the visitors and participants at the Expo were primarily trying to understand the

fundamental concept of a ‘Smart City’ although a comprehensive definition is still being evolved. However in lay-man terms it basically suggests that a City (an urban development) would be Smart – such that it is efficient in its functioning and able to address the concerns and issues of any typical ur-

ban development on a continual basis. There are multitude of technologies which professes to provide this effi-ciency ranging from street lighting, traf-fic controls, land records, demographic data, energy consumption, waste dis-posal etc and etc.

One critical aspect of this whole para-digm is that all of this relies on Informa-tion, which needs to be reliable and ac-cessible at will. Question arises where is the Information coming from and where should it reside for easy retrieval. There are umpteen parties and organisations which claim to have the necessary tech-nology to accommodate the data/informa-tion for easy access although this needs to be demonstrated since the purpose of the Information/Data is to assist in deci-sion making for action. This is presumed to lead to efficient operations of a City and therefore A Smart City.Although the presumption of higher effi-ciency is not mis-placed but in the whole fanfare of Smart Cities, the origin of the In-formation/Data is never discussed, where-as that is a very critical aspect. Once you have the Information/Data you can do a whole lot of things with it and if the Infor-mation/Data is accurate and precise then your analyses are also accurate and pre-cise for you to take necessary relevant decisions which are more impactful with positive results.Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the latest technology in which all data/infor-mation for both graphical and non-graph-

ical shall be included and made available for other platforms to perform their analy-ses for decision-making and action.BIM is under constant evolution that now it has gone beyond buildings and has crept into infrastructure too, hence slowly em-bracing the whole gamut of real-estate development. In India the adoption of BIM technology has been rather slow since its inception in the country a decade ago. Lately there seems to an avid interest and confidence in adoption among major play-ers in the Real-Estate industry. The slug-

gishness has been primarily due to many factors, prominent of them being the fear of the unknown and the usual question of Return-on-Investment. Considering that the Real Estate Industry in India is a little murky in its working the ROI computation is a quandary. The Industry needs to real-ize and is realizing that the ROI is basical-ly during operations and largely end-load-ed. However the efforts are front-loaded where the Information/Data is generated and collated.

It is only when you have all the infor-mation/data that you can perform the requisite analyses for further actions and this is where the return would be visible. A Smart City maybe all very well connected but at the back end if the database is lacking then there would be no use of the entire IT Infra-structure in place.

T



For example: a home-owner (flatted or landed) would be able to go online and view the property she owns, compute the area (done automatically) and pay her property tax without having to visit any of the municipality offices. Whatever prevail-ing property tax rates can be appended and amended with the relevant land/own-ership data at any time.Similarly if she chooses to sell her prop-erty, the buyer could have access to all the information regarding ownership etc.

before striking the deal – again the cost of the transaction would be minimal.

The reduction in costs of such transac-tions would be one of the components towards the ROI of BIM. This is currently invisible but would be very much visible in a Smart City.

Interestingly BIM has immediate benefits too, that is during the building stage itself of any structure for human habitation –

Residential, Hotel, Hospital etc.

It is interesting to note that at the Design stage itself most of the required informa-tion/data generated is equally beneficial for construction, operations and gover-nance – unfortunately conventionally this is restricted uptil execution of the building and/or uptil approval. After that all such information/data is lost leading to a slew of inefficiencies for governance and tech-nical up gradation.

Planned Actual

A Smart City would require two types of information – one for efficient governance and the other for technical performance. Although they appear to be very distinct but governance can be pro-active if it has the necessary backing of the technical information.

With BIM being the initial digital reposi-tory, which can be further appended with additional information/data or amended too, providing for a live repository. This database can be further integrated with other databases/repository such demog-raphy etc.

The singular challenge that needs to be

overcome is in timely collection of infor-mation/data, most technical data can be acquired and stored at quite precise lev-els, but for governance we need demo-graphic, socio-economic, consumption etc. data which traditionally were always delayed, which then had to be forecast-ed, estimated etc. Applying Digital (going beyond buildings) Information Modeling effectively should be able to remove this time lag.

BIM is not necessarily a software but a technology which relies extensively on a well drawn-out process, which if smartly leveraged it can provide for smart deci-sions and action. This can be achieved

by running through ‘if-then’ scenarios digitally which is visually appealing and communicative with all the necessary data embedded – BIM provides for such explorative analyses.

Although BIM technology has been around for about two decades now in the world, the uptake in India has been rather slow – more on account of lack of awareness. Hopefully the government’s initiative of Smart Cities will give impetus to the awareness and eventual adoption and leverage Building Information Mod-eling.

Author:

Sudip Choudhury is an architect from School of Planning and Architecture Delhi and an MBA from National University of Singapore. He has been promoter and evangelist of technology for the Construction industry all throughout his ca-reer and for the last decade has been involved in developing, promoting and applying BIM Pro-cesses in India, Middle-East and South-East Asia. He is the Head of Operations for HSSBIM Solutions



CASE STUDIES

OPPORTUNITIES INTO DHOLERA SIR AND SMART CITY

holera Smart City and SIR - One of the Top 10 Smart cities of world. Dholera is situated in Ahmedabad district near Gulf of Khambhat. Strategically located, the Ahmedabad-Dholera industrial region lies within 100 km from Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) in Southern Gujarat. It has approximate area of 920 square kilometers, in which Developable area is approximate 567 square kilometers. Dholera SIR and Smart City is a major project under the DMIC (Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor) Project with an aim to make it a global manufac-turing hub supported by world class infrastructure.

Project Vision To develop Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) as global manufacturing and trading hub i.e. “The engine for economic resurgence of the country” which is supported by world class infrastructure.

“The Development Plan, taking into account the DMIC objec-tives and goals, should focus towards creating and enabling environment protects local industries, enhance investment climate, improve quality of life, upgrade human skills, create world class infrastructure and attract global investment”.

Project goals are to double the employment potential, triple industrial output and quadruple exports from the region in next five years.

D


CASE STUDIES

• Empowered mechanism for adminis-tration

• Autonomy in operations• Freedom in planning• Commitment to adopt best practices• Commitment to adopt best practices• Full potential for private sector par-

ticipation• Fully developed environment &

framework for PPP

• The work on the central spine road already started

• Government allocates 1700 Hect. land for adjoining Airport

• Anchor Tenants already in place• Water logging, seismological & envi-

ronment studies underway• The legal framework enacted: The

SIR Act 2009• Project development corporation

(GICC) formed• Development Plan sanctioned on 10

/09/2012• Town Planning Scheme (TPS) no. 1

to 6 sanctioned

Salient Features

Current Status

Key Features

of Dholera Smart

City & SIR -

» Total Area: 920 Sq. km

» Developable Area: 567.39 Sq. Km

» High Access Corridor: City Center, Indus-

trial, Logistic, Knowledge & IT, Recreation

& Sports, Entertainment

» World-class infrastructure & connectivity

» Proximity to mega cities: Ahmedabad,

Bhavnagar, Vadodara

» Airport & Sea Port in the vicinity

» Benefit of sea coast, nature park, golf

course

» Premium civic amenities

» Capable to cater to both International &

Domestic Market

» Close to Gujarat International Finance

Tech-City (GIFT)

» Close to Petro-chemicals and Petroleum

Inv. Region (PCPIR)

» Logistic support of the Dedicated Freight

Corridor (DMIC)

» Benefits of the high impact Delhi Mumbai

Industrial Corridor (DMIC)

» Public investment in core infrastructure


Components of Proposed Economic Activity Mix: Proposed economic activity mix at the DSIR entails development of total of 9,225 hectares of land. This economic activity mix is expected to employ approximately 342,400 workers. A number of economic activities have been consid-ered to be taken up in the DSIR.

The heavy engineering industry envisaged as part of economic activity mix of the DSIR comprises of production of machinery and equipment like heavy electrical equipments like turbines, power and distribution trans-formers, generators, High tension circuit breakers etc. The segment also includes manufacturing of machinery for sectors like cement, sugar, min-ing and metallurgy, boilers, precision machine tools and material handling equipment. Heavy transport equipment like railway coaches also form part of this economic activity in the DSIR.

Heavy Engineering

The Automobile and Auto Ancillary indus-try envisaged to be set up in Dholera SIR comprises of manufacture of automobile as well as automotive components. The sec-tor also takes into account the manufacture of engines and heavy commercial vehicles like trucks, trawlers

Automobiles and Auto Ancillary

The Electronics, Hitech and Emerging technologies / high value add industries envisaged to be set up at the DSIR com-prises of the high value creating new age manufacturing. It comprises of production of hi end consumer electronics, com-puter electronics, communication electronics, industrial electronics, and automotive electronics equipment. The economy activity mix under this category also comprises of wafer fabrication and associated technologies. This new age sector also involves setting up of modern industry sectors in nascent stages of development like nanotechnology, new materials, and cryogenics.

Electronics, Hitech and Emerging technologies / high value add industries

Further Development

Environmental clearance was given by the government on July 30, 2014

Singapore Based CapitaLand Invest-ment Trust along through its Indian arm Isobar Global Holdings has report-edly acquired 3000 acres of land within Dholera SIR to develop state of art lo-gistical hub.

Mahindra Life Space Developers Lim-ited (MLDL), the real estate and in-frastructure development arm of the Mahindra Group plans to develop Busi-ness City in the Mahindra World City format at Dholera Special Investment Region spread across 3000 acres.

Sabeer Bhatia’s company Nano Works Developer Gujarat Pvt Ltd has entered into MOU with Government of Gujarat to acquire 1500 acres.

British infrastructure development Hal-crow was contracted as the master planners. Cisco and IBM have got the contract to develop Dholera as a smart city. This means, Dholera SIR and Smart City will have a centralized digi-tal control of all infrastructural facilities such as water, power and gas traffic through an underground sensor sys-tem reporting to a central control room.

Opportunities in Dholera Smart City and SIR: • To build the industrial parks• To build the Residential townships• To build knowledge cities• To build Cargo/Logistic Park• Set up the Metro Rail System &

International Airport

• Potential for development as a Multi-modal Transportation hub due to lesser distance to all the northern Indian States.

• Build world class transport service foreign markets

• In building its infrastructure:

1 2 3

4 5 6

7

Road Rail Hospital

Water Tourism Sanitation

Hospitality

CASE STUDIES

www.UrbanaWorld.com URBANA WORLD July-Aug 2015 55May-June 2015 55

The Pharmaceutical industry en-visaged to be set up in the DSIR comprises of Contract Research companies, Contract Manufacturing companies, companies manufactur-ing Biotechnology products, APIs, Ayurvedic Products, Biopharmaceu-ticals and Intermediates and fine chemicals Additionally, the indus-try also involves establishing world class research institutes for phar-maceuticals which undertake cutting edge research that can benefit the companies located within the DSIR as well as in other parts of the coun-try. Biotechnology industry involves companies focusing on research and development as well as commercial production of products related to different aspects of biotechnology including Bioinformatics and agri-cultural, marine, pharmaceutical & healthcare, industrial and environ-mental biotechnology. The sector also takes into account setting up of R&D institutions undertaking cutting edge research in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology The Metals and metallurgical products industry at the

DSIR does not envisage production of metals from their ores. This is because base metal producers in India typi-cally have captive mines supplying ore to the producer at negligible costs. Moreover, the plants are located closer to the mines to reduce the logistics cost. Hence, the basic metals produced in India are among the most competi-tively priced across the globe. However, Gujarat does not have rich reserves of basic metals which can be used to sustain production. The bulky nature of import ensures a high logistics cost in transporting ore from a mine located elsewhere in India or abroad. This would raise the cost of production of metal making it production unviable

The Metals and metallurgical products industry proposed at the DSIR includes secondary production of steel. The raw material for the industry can be sourced from the ship breaking yard at Alang located in close proximity to the DSIR. The proposed industry also includes production of fabricated metal products like Steel pipes and Steel & Aluminium furniture and manufacture of steel re rolled products. Similarly copper could be sourced from largest smelter located at Dahej.

The industry also involves production of metallurgical products like Iron and Steel Pipe and Tube Manufactur-ing, Rolled Steel Shape Manufacturing, steel wire draw-ing, Rolled Steel Shape Manufacturing, Aluminum Ex-truded Product Manufacturing, Other Aluminum Rolling and Drawing, copper alloying, automobile forging etc.

Metals & Metallurgical Products

Manufacturing units in the value chain will require the out-put / products from several other industries apart from their upstream and downstream industries for smooth running of their operations. These would comprise industries like pack-aging, office supplies, tooling etc. These industries have been designated to be located under the category of Gener-al Manufacturing in the DSIR.

These industries would go a long way in helping the DSIR become a self sustaining zone without being dependent on other regions for provision of critical resources for smooth running of operations.

This category of industries in the DSIR could include the following and others depending upon other core industries finally established:

1. Packaging2. Ceramics3. Office Supplies4. Plastic Products5. Technical Textiles6. Tools7. Office Furniture

8. Bathroom Fittings9. Misc. industries not included in the recommended economic activity mix

In addition, although the DSIR is envisaged to be home to a select few industry sectors. However, in future in case there emerges a need to permit a newly emerged manufacturing industry to be permitted to be set up base in the DSIR which has not been allocated area in economic activity mix of the DSIR, then this unit can be permitted to be set up its base in the DSIR under the category of general manufacturing. However, it should be an exception rather than a rule.

General Manufacturing

CASE STUDIES


Current Investment trend:

Real Estate Price Trend:

MNCs, Indian Corporate, Real Es-tate Developers, and Infrastructure Developers have already acquired land since announcement of the project and day by day numbers are increasing along with mid-size and small scale industrialist and investors.

As usual with across the globe and Indian real estate trend of increasing YoY double fold increment of the real estate rates particularly at potential and huge infrastructure developable area like Smart City, SEZ, SIR, Metro Rail, Sea Port, Air Port etc., Dholera Region is witnessing very high appre-ciation of land rates of Commercial, Industrial and Residential land space since last 5years. Investors from all the Metro Cities of India as well Tier-II cities and NRIs are searching their space in Dholera Smart City and Special Investment Region as per their future plan of economic activities and/or purpose of getting high appreciation in short span of time from their invest-ment into property of Smart City and Special Investment Region.

The Agro and Food processing industry envisaged to be set up at the DSIR comprises of preserved fruits and vegetables in-cluding canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, canned and frozen specialties, dried and dehydrated fruits and vegetables, pickles and salad dressings. The industry also includes manu-facture of breakfast foods, flour mixes and doughs, and pet food. Dairy products like fluid milk, butter, cheese, and ice cream and confectionary products like candy, chocolate, chewing gum, and nuts and seeds are also included in the sub sectors of food pro-cessing industry envisaged to be set up in the DSIR. Beverages like malted beverages, soft drinks, and flavoring extracts as well as other foods like food including canned and frozen food, pota-to and corn chips and macaroni, spaghetti, and pasta products are also included as part of this industry in the DSIR.

Agro and Food ProcessingThe IT/ITeS industry at the DSIR com-prises of Application Services, BPO/KPO/LPO, IT Consulting, Electronics Design Services, Medical transcription. Gov-ernment of Gujarat envisages the devel-opment of this industry in GIFT city and hence this economic activity has been proposed to have a limited presence in the DSIR. However, the units located in the DSIR will not only be catering to the needs of the units located in the DSIR alone but also to the needs of clients located outside the DSIR as well as even outside India.

IT/ITeS

Author:

Sudher C RavalReal Estate and Infrastructure Project Promotion Expert having 15 years of quality experience into wide spectrum of the aspects pertaining to SEZs, FTZ, FIZ, SIR and Smart City. Associated with promotion of various Smart Cities and SIRs of In-dia including Dholera Smart City and SIR.

CASE STUDIES


SMART CITIES NEWS

SHRI M. VENKAIAH NAIDU ANNOUNCES 98 SELECTED SMART CITY NOMINEES

These cities and towns were nominated by respective States and Union Territo-ries at the end of first stage of ‘City Challenge’ competition in which all the ur-ban local bodies in each State and UT were evaluated based on their financial and institutional capacities and past track record. After releasing the list of selected cities at a media conference, Shri Naidu complimented States/UTs for conducting objective evaluation in the first stage of competition.

hri Naidu gave details of profiles of all the select-ed cities and towns in terms of population and characters of each city/town. He informed that:

24

18 05

1lac

24cities are

capital cities

are of cultural and tourism importance

8 have population up to one lakh. These being: Panaji, Diu,Silvas-sa, Kavaratti, Dharmashala, New Town Kolkata, Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh and Namchi(Sikkim)

35 have population between one and five lakhs

05 in the range of 25 to 50 lakhs

21 cities are in the population range of five to ten lakhs

25 have population of above 10 lakhs and below 25 lakhs

are port cities and three are

educational and healthcare hubs.

are business and industrial centres

Shri Naidu observed that 65 small and medium towns and cities making to the list of smart city aspirants is a welcome feature since making them smart would lay good foundation for better urban management when they further expand.The Minister informed that nine capital cities viz., Itanagar, Patna, Shimla, Ben-galuru, Daman, Thiruvananthapuram, Puducherry, Gangtok and Kolkata failed to be selected and this goes to prove that the smart city selection was not in-fluenced by the stature or importance of the cities. Shri Venkaiah Naidu informed that two more cities would be announced in due course since the Government of Jammu & Kashmir sought more time to make up its choice while additional infor-mation was sought from the Government of Uttar Pradesh regarding the 13th smart city slot allotted to that State.The Minis-ter said that the 98 cities selected under Smart City Mission have a population of about 13 crore accounting for over 35% of the country’s urban population. He fur-ther said that under Smart City Mission and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), 80% of total urban population would benefit from enhanced quality of living.

Shri Naidu said that with the selection of almost all the cities under the Smart Cities Mission, all the selected cities will have to prepare city level Smart City Plans and these will be evaluated in the second stage of competition based on a broad set of criteria to pick up the top scoring 20 cities for financing during this financial year. Funds may be released to these 20 cities by the end of this year, he said. Others will be asked to improve upon the identified deficiencies before participating in the next two rounds of competition.Those cities to be selected in the second stage of competition would

be provided with central assistance of Rs.200 cr in the first year followed by Rs.100 cr each year during the next three years, the Minister informed.Shri Naidu said that making smart cities is a challenging task and States and urban

local bodies have to rise to the challenge. He said that the Central Government has undertaken measures to empower them to meet the challenge through substan-tially enhanced central assistance and decentralizing decision making besides assisting in capacity building of urban lo-cal bodies. He informed that as against the central assistance of only Rs.36,000 cr during the 10 years of JNNURM, centre would provide about Rs.3.00 lakh crored under various new urban initiatives. Shri Naidu observed that the country can not afford to miss this opportunity of recast-ing country’s urban landscape and the situation is ‘perform or perish’ for the States and urban local bodies.The Min-ister said that formulation of new urban sector initiatives is based on ‘bottom up’ planning based on citizen consultations

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In terms of population

Four viz., Chennai, Greater Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Greater Mumbai have population above 50 lakh.

Mr. Naidu elaborate the concept & said “ A smart city would ensue core infrastructure needed for de-cent living in urban areas. We are not aiming at making our urban landscape look fanciful and flashy. The prime objective is to enhance the quality of urban life by address-ing deficiencies in core infrastruc-ture. Expectations in various quar-ters may be high but the Mission is very practical and realistic in its intentions and objectives.”


SMART CITIES NEWS

Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu today said that ‘ a Smart City is what the cit-izens want their city to be and the city level plans should be evolved based on extensive consulta-tions with them. Smart City Plans will be evaluated in the second stage of City Challenge competition based on such consultations and their econom-ic and environmental impacts.” Shri Venkaiah Naidu was addressing the Smart City Regional Workshop held for ten Northern states and Gu-jarat to discuss various aspects of preparation of Smart City Plans and related issues. Mayors and Municipal Chairpersons and Municipal Commis-sioners from cities included in Smart City Mission and Principal Secretaries of Urban Development from these states besides representatives of do-mestic and global technical agencies and consul-tants and multi-lateral lending agencies attended the workshop. The participating states and Union

Territories of Chandi-garh, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Him-achal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Ra-jasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat accounted for 40 of the 98 smart city candidates, 201 of 482 AMRUT cities and 5 of the 12 HRIDAY cit-ies identified so far. The Minister said that for re-alizing the India growth story, the urban areas of the country need to be improved in terms of infrastructure, urban governance to enhance business and econom-ic activity and quality of life.Shri Naidu urged the

elected representatives and officials of the cities included in the Smart City Mission to leave behind the jubiliation over the same and face the tough challenge of making them smart, for which the clock has begun to tick. He expressed confidence that the urban landscape of the country can be re-cast to make urban areas more livable and more effective engines of economic growth under the epochal new beginning made under the vision-ary leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The Urban Development Minister said that a paradigm shift has been introduced to enable the success of new urban development initiatives based on the learnings of the past, including the implementation of JNNURM.

Shri Naidu informed the elected and executive heads of urban local bodies that the Smart City Plans to be now prepared for evaluation in the second stage of City Challenge compe-tition will be broadly assessed for the extent and quality of citizen participation and their economic and environmental impacts. These city level plans are to be submitted to the Ur-ban Development Ministry in the next three months for evaluation for selecting the top 20 rankers for extending financial support during the current financial year.

Differentiating between the Smart City Mis-sion and the Atal Mission (AMRUT), Shri Madhusudhan Prasad, Secretary (UD) said that the former is based on selection while the latter on entitlement. He stressed that “Smart City Mission is not a mere urban infrastructure upgradation mission. It is area based and in-tended to benefit all the citizens of an urban areas in one form or the other. For the suc-cess of smart city mission, one has to think out of the box and act accordingly.

Under AMRUT, all towns and cities with a population of more than one lakh each are included in the mission for ensuring basic in-frastructure to improve service levels by tar-geting individual households. Under Smart City Mission, selection of cities is based on competition and the implementation strategy is area based.

Seeking to motivate the Mayors, Mu-nicipal Chairpersons and Municipal Commissioners of 40 cities includ-ed in Smart City Mission, Shri Naidu said ; “You have it in you to rise to the challenge of making these cities smart if you so desire and act accord-ingly. All that is needed is change of mindset and commitment to live up to people’s expectations and the desire to be remembered for what you have done instead of worrying about the next elections.”

Elaborating on the essential features of this new ap-proach, Shri Naidu said, these include : Bottom-up planning based on citizen participa-tion, complete autonomy to states and UTs in project proposal, appraisal and approval, selection of cities and towns under new urban missions based on objective criteria, convergence of dif-ferent schemes to enable in-tegrated planning and better utilization of resources for visible impact on ground and unprecedented resource support to states and urban local bodies.

SMART CITY IS WHAT CITIZENS WANT THEIR CITY TO BE, SAYS SHRI NAIDU


SOUTH KOREA OFFERS TO MAKE SMART CITY NEAR CHANDIGARH

RS.194 CR RELEASED TO 96 CITIES UNDER SMART CITY MIS-SION FOR PREPARA-TION OF CITY PLANS

hile Chandigarh may have been included in the list of 98 cities nominated by the central govern-ment for its “Smart City” project, an upcoming town in Punjab adjoining it will get South Korean help to build a new smart city.The offer to cre-ate a smart city in New Chandigarh was made by Korea Telecom, a South Korean company, to a visiting delegation from Punjab led by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.The com-pany also offered to provide LED and safe city (CCTV) solutions for Ludhiana and Amritsar cit-ies. Badal and his delegation visited the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) operational centre and asked Korea Telecom officials to submit a proposal for developing New Chandigarh as a smart city.Giving detail of the Songdo smart city which is part of the zone, officials disclosed that 317 cameras installed in the city monitored air and water levels, besides monitoring transport and giving real time information to people about accidents or traffic jams.Badal is visiting South Korea to attract investment for Punjab.

SOURCE: IANS

he Ministry of Urban Development has sanc-tioned Rs. 194 cr at the rate of Rs.2.00 cr per each of the 96 cities included in the Smart City Mission. Of the 98 smart city candidate firmed up so far, funds will be sanctioned soon by the Home Ministry to the Union Ter-ritories of Delhi and Chandigarh. Sanction Orders were issued to 38 smart city repre-sentatives from 11 states who attended the Regional Workshop here today by the Minis-ter of Urban Development Shri M.Venakaiah Naidu. One city each from Jammu & Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh are still to be identified for inclusion in the Smart City Mission. Later in the day, funds were transferred electronically to the respective states and Union Territories.Rs.2.00 cr provided for each city is meant for preparation of city level Smart City Plans with the assistance of technical and hand holding agencies.

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SMART CITIES NEWS

NSIEMENS OFFERS INTEGRATED SOLU-TIONS FOR SMART CITY DEVELOPMENT

New urbans sector initiatives like the Smart City Mission and Housing for All Mission came in for extensive discussion between the Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and high level delegations from Siemens AG and the UNO and UNDP.A five member delegation led by Mr.Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Sie-mens and Shri Dipak Parekh of HDFC Bank met Shri Naidu and discussed possible areas of involvement in the Smart City Mission. The delegation said that given the experience and expertise of Siemens, the company is in a position to offer integrated solutions to potential smart cities covering the areas of urban infrastructure, energy, security, waste management and governance platforms and ranging from planning to execution. The del-egation also referred to a Memorandum of Understanding signed with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for partnering in Smart City Mission based on a consortium ap-

proach.

Shri Venkaiah Naidu suggested that Siemen’s representatives and senior officials of the min-istry should hold further discus-sions on evolving a template for city-wise integrated solutions for the consideration of urban local bodies.A delegation from the UN and UNDP led by Mr.Yuri Afan-siev, Resident Coordinator of UN and Resident Representative of UNDP also met Shri Venkaiah Naidu and explored the areas of possible cooperation in the im-plementation of new urban sec-tor initiatives. Mr.Afansiev sug-gested that use of pre-fabricated housing technologies should be adopted on a large scale to meet the ambitious housing targets of the Government.

President of Sie-mens Mr.Joe Kaeser said that the com-pany has the ideas, technologies and identified financing partners in Deutsche Bank and KFW to assist the potential smart cities.

Shri Naidu referred to the efforts being made by the Ministry of Housing & Ur-ban Technology to promote pre-fabricated housing technologies and suggested that a few pilot projects could be taken up after further discussions for promoting such construction under the housing mission.


SMART CITIES NEWS

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NEC AND THE GOVERNMENT OF ANDHRA PRADESH TO COLLABORATE ON SAFE CITY DEVELOPMENT IN TIRUPATI, INDIA

he MoU was signed at an official cere-mony in Japan in the presence of Mr. Yosuke Takagi, State Minister of Econ-omy, Trade & Industry, Japan and Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

Under the agreement, NEC will work in collaboration with APTS in designing and implementing the Safe City Proj-ect at Tirupati, India. The core focus of the project will be making the city more secure and safer for its citizens through technological innovations.NEC will sup-port APTS in implementing the Safe City Project in Tirupati along with creating an environment that is attractive to inves-tors by providing leading solutions and technologies,including facial recogni-tion systems and automated fingerprint identification systems.

As part of the Safe City Project at Tir-upati, both parties agreed to explore col-laboration in a range of areas, including Cyber Security in response to increas-ing cyber threats in India, as well as Smart Transportation for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) sector in order to improve operational efficiency and increase pas-senger satisfaction by utilizing the latest ICT solutions.

In addition to the Safe City Project, NEC will study the possibilities ofestablishing a Centre of Excellence (CoE) and a De-velopment Centre (DC) that could assist with R&D, capacity building and offer consulting on a wide variety of techno-logical projects.

Leveraging the experience gained in this proj-ect, NEC aims to provide similar services and to contribute to additionalsmart and safe city proj-ects throughout India.

Hyderabad, India & Tokyo, Japan, 28 July, 2015– NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) today announced that NEC India and AP Tech-nology Services Limited (APTS), a wholly owned state compa-ny of Andhra Pradesh, India that develops IT, electronics and communications services, signed a Memorandum of Under-standing (MOU) to collaborate in the areas of information tech-nology for smart city initiatives in the state.

“We are thrilled with the opportunity to work closely with the Andhra Pradesh govern-ment in contributing to the state’s vision of creating a better society and a safe habitat for its citizens. We are confident that NEC’s technological capabilities, global experience and local understanding, in partnership with APTS, will bring new value to the safe city projects in Andhra Pradesh.”

Mr. Koichiro Koide, Managing Director, NEC India


SMART CITIES NEWS

HHe said agencies such as World Bank, ADB and JAICA would come forward to lend only if the urban bodies have the ability to pay back. “Otherwise, by sim-ply asking, nobody is going to give loan. And then, state government has to give guarantee. If the state is not going to give, then we will give. And then, the Central government has to give guarantee at the national level for international agencies,” the Minister said. Naidu was speaking at a regional workshop on smart cities for 11 states. “So, we are going to recommend for loan for those cities which are ready to reform, and have creditworthiness,” he said. Appreciating the practice of rating creditworthiness among city corporations in Maharashtra, Naidu suggested more such urban bodies in the country to em-brace the model. “That’s a good example. Every city must go for that creditworthi-ness,” he said. The minister said urban municipal bodies in the country are in a

bad shape, with some not even in a posi-tion to pay the salaries of their staff. “To-day, our situation in urban areas is very bad. Taxes have not been revised in some municipalities for five years, six years or seven years. In some municipalities, the revenue is less and the salary of employ-ees is high.

“Are the employees appointed in munici-palities (only) to give (them) salaries? How much money you have, so much you can spend. Some people are saying, ‘(for) four months we don’t have salaries, sir. Give something from Delhi’. (If) I have to give salaries to your municipal town, then what are you going to do? The ratio has also to be kept in mind,” he asserted. Noting that there is disappointment in some cities for

not figuring in the list of 100 smart cities announced by the Centre, he exhorted the cities to reform, so as to qualify. “There is some disappointment in some cities that they have not been selected. But this is only the beginning. The selection is not automatic. 20 cities will be selected from 100 cities again. Only pre-qualification is over. “It’s like 100-m race, 200-m race, 400-m race… You pass one and then you go to the next one. That’s why I said the countdown begins now. All the cities, they must be extra careful,” he said, adding if you don’t reform, you will not be there for the next round.

“A smart city plan is what the citizens want for themselves in their city. The broad contours of a smart city, in our context as we have visualised, are necessary core infrastructure, sanitation, health and ed-ucation facilities, clean and sustainable environment, good public transport, good city governance and adoption of smart technologies to ensure decent living and catalyse economic growth, which is the need of the hour,” the minister further said.

SOURCE: PTI

C

CENTRE TO RECOMMEND LOANS TO PERFORMING CITIES: NAIDU

MISTRY OFFERS COOPERATION IN URBAN MISSION

hairman of Tata Group Cyrus Mistry recently called on Urban Develop-ment Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and discussed with him about the new urban sector initiatives like the Smart City Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission and Housing for All Mission.Naidu discussed possible areas of involvement of Tata Group in Amaravathi, the proposed new capital city of Andhra Pradesh, ministry officials said.

The Centre would recommend loans from international agencies for reform-oriented and performing cities who have repaying capacity, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said

Naidu asked Mistry to take interest in the construction activities in Amara-vathi and other cities such as Hyder-abad and Vizag, they said, adding that Minister has also sought cooperation of Tata Group in the implementation of urban sector initiatives in other parts of the Country.He congratulated Naidu on launching of urban sector initiatives such as Smart City Mission, Housing For all, Swachh Bharat Mis-sion, and offered full cooperation in the successful implementation of the urban sector schemes.


SMART CITIES NEWS

OOOREDOO LAUNCHES SMART CITY IN THE MALDIVES

Ooredoo recently launched Smart City initiative in the Maldives, committing to connect the nation with smart solutions aimed to enrich the lives of the population.To kick start their Smart City initiative, Ooredoo announced the introduction of Ooredoo Wi-Fi Hangout Areas across prime spots in the capital city including hospitals, ferry terminals, youth center, café’s etc. The company will continue to expand this service across the country, enabling customers with seamless access to a fast, secure and affordable internet connection from wherever they are. Ooredoo will also be providing Free Wi-Fi access at public utility areas such as IGMH hospital, ferry terminals and the youth center. Customers can use 50 Mb of data per day within the Free Wi-Fi service, giving them the opportunity to catch up on news websites or connect with friends and family via social media, email, and social chat platforms such as WhatsApp and Viber. They can also watch videos, video chats and download content by subscribing to the available Wi-Fi hotspot. As a special promotion to celebrate the launch of Ooredoo’s Smart City, the people of Maldives will be able to enjoy free Wi-Fi access at all Ooredoo Wi-Fi Hangout Area’s till the end of September.Ooredoo has already started using smart technologies to support young people. The compa-ny has setup a telecenter at Iskandhar School and has enabled free access to a number of educational websites, adding to the interactive learning experience of young students.

EESSEL GROUP, CII INK PACT TO FORM TECH-

NICAL CONSORTIUM FOR SMART CITIESEssel Group recently said it has signed an agreement with industry body CII to form a technical consortium for smart city projects in the country.The India Techni-cal Consortium would be set up under the CII National Mission on Smart Cities, the company said in a statement. The MoU was signed today by CII ( Confeder-ation of Indian Industry) Director General Chandrajit Bannerjee and Amit Goenka, Director, Essel Infraprojects Ltd, it said.As per the agreement, the two organi-sations would work towards associating and bringing other technology and infra-structure solution partners together as a cohesive group for developing smart cities in India.According to the MoU, Essel group will support the CII Nation-al Mission on Smart Cities by providing necessary inputs for generating ideas for policy advocacy and promotion of smart city concepts among stakeholders.

It will also support CII’s thought leader-ship role and the knowledge repository by providing reference points along with other technology and infrastructure solu-tion partners, showcasing best practic-es in various fields related to smart city development, it said.In addition, Essel

Group will support CII by conducting fea-sibility studies for the evaluation of po-tential target cities with regard to oppor-tunities in energy management, mobility solutions, building management systems and other associated areas.“The MoU with CII is a perfect platform to present our commitment in creating world-class

cities and transforming quality of life of people in India. We are delighted to be CII’s strategic partner in this journey to-wards delivering integrated, inclusive and sustainable development of cities in India,” Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra said. Source: PTI


SMART CITIES NEWS

CANADA TO INVEST PENSION FUNDS (USD 750BN) IN URBAN PROJECTS

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HARYANA GOVERNMENT AND CISCO SIGN MOU ON SMART CITY CONCEPT

he Haryana government’s secre-tariat of information technology and US-based CISCO Systems International BV have agreed to collaborate in “furthering the smart city concept” in Haryana.The two entities signed a memorandum of

understanding (MoU) in the pres-ence of Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and indus-tries minister Captain Abhimanyu in San Francisco on Thursday, an official spokesperson here said.Under the MoU, CISCO will share its expertise and experience in the development of smart cities the world over, particularly its “safe plus smart plus connected” com-munity programmes, and “Internet of Everything” with focus on im-proving the quality of life through the use of technology. The Hary-ana government is keen on devel-oping many of its cities as smart cities even though as of now only Faridabad and Karnal are covered under the central government scheme.Haryana principal secre-tary (information technology) De-

vender Singh signed on behalf of the state government and Faiyaz Shahpurwala, senior vice-presi-dent, CISCO, did so on behalf of his company.Both Haryana and CISCO will explore the possibilities of collaboration or cooperation in the field of smart city and safe city infrastructure, including infrastruc-ture level interventions required to add efficiency to the public infra-structure and services in Haryana. The spokesperson said that the MoU did not involve payment of any fee by one party to the other and the two parties will cooperate with each other at their own cost to achieve the ends of the MoU. It will initially be valid for six months from the date of execution.

SOURCE: HT

Canada is keen on investing its pension funds in urban development and infrastructure projects in India and will be opening an office in this regard in Mumbai next month. This was stated by High Com-missioner of Canada Nadir Patel during his meeting with Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu. The High Commissioner also informed that his government is thinking of entering into a Bilateral Investment Policy Agreement with India.

Patel said that Canadian government has about USD 750 billion of pension fund and is looking at huge investment opportunities now available in India in the context of new urban sector initiatives and stress on infrastructure development, according to a UD Ministry official. He informed Naidu that urban initiatives like Smart City Mission, Atal Mission, Housing Mission top the agenda of his dis-cussions with business leaders and investors. Patel also said that with three of the world’s top five smart cities in Canada, his country has vast experience of building smart cities which could be shared with the states and urban local bodies in India.

SOURCE: PTI


SMART CITIES NEWS

$100-MILLION NEEDED TO MAKE AHMEDABAD ‘SMART CITY’-

Philip Liu, ZTE INDIA CEO

The government may have to spend at least $100 million annually to con-vert a city with size and population of Ahmedabad into a ‘Smart City’, Philip Liu, the CEO of Chinese tech-nology firm ZTEsoft’s Indian arm ZTE India recently said.Liu and several top officials of ZTEsoft took part in the Gujarat Smart City Workshop.

peaking to the media, Liu also said that investment for smart city may go up if cost of building infrastructure is added.To the question how much investment is need-ed to convert a city like Ahmedabad into a smart city, Liu said, “This is too early to predict about the exact investment… But I can give you a rough figure by making comparison with other similar size cities in China where we have implemented our projects.

“The total investment needed would be at least $ 100 million annually for a city like this. Moreover, the investment could go higher in initial phase, as we have to upgrade the existing infrastructure such as fibre optic network.”The workshop was jointly organised by ZTE soft and R&D Centre of Shenzhen Government, China.Several Gujarat government officials and mayors of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar also attended it, said the company’s Man-aging Director for India and South Asia Prasoon Sharma.Ahmedabad and Gand-hinagar civic bodies have signed ‘Letter of Cooperation’ with Shenzhen Government for smart city project.Shenzhen govern-ment had signed two MoUs with Gujarat to develop smart cities during the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s China visit in May this year, said Sharma.

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“Today we have decided to form a joint committee having members of all the stakeholders to find out the areas where we need to focus for smart city project. We expect that the report would come in November,” said Sharma.According to him, different solutions will be needed for both the cities which are distinct in size and population.”We learned that people visiting Gandhinagar find it difficult to locate places, as all the roads and landmarks look the same. In that case, we can offer them smart traffic modules as well as intelligent signalling systems.”In Ahmedabad, we can provide smart solutions for waste management and water supply. There can be many other areas, which will emerge during our joint study. After the report arrives, we will carry out a pilot project in these cities.”

- Prasoon Sharma, Managing Director for India

and South Asia, ZTE


SMART CITIES NEWS

A“SMART” SOLAR PALM TREES POWER WI-FI, PHONES IN DUBAI

new species of palm tree has started sprouting around Dubai. But instead of producing dates, the fronds of the Smart Palm harness the sun’s energy to allow people to look up city informa-tion, access Wi-Fi, and charge their phones, all for free.Topped with nine leaf-shaped photovoltaic modules, a six-meter-tall Smart Palm can gener-ate around 7.2 kilowatt hours per day, enough to operate without ever draw-ing off the grid.The two prototype palms that have already been installed — one at a beach near the Burj Al Arab hotel and other at centrally located Zabeel Park — each carry a Wi-Fi hotspot, eight charging stations for phones and tablets, and a touch-screen panel giv-ing local details on things like weather and transportation. The company be-

hind the device, Dubai-based D Idea, says connectivity is just the start of the Smart Palm’s potential.”Subsequent Smart Palms will have ATM machines and utility bill payment services,” said CEO Viktor Nelepa. “Our team has also started to find new ways in which the Smart Palm can support other forms of sustainable generation, specifically through air and water purification mod-ules.”Over the next 12 months, D Idea plans to install 103 Smart Palms across the city of Dubai.The next generation of the device, due to be launched in Sep-tember, will be created by 3D printer and have a different design.Made from a combination of fiber-reinforced plas-tic and concrete, the new Smart Palms will also be better able to withstand Dubai’s tropical desert climate.

“The device will not only look attractive, but would counter the extreme weather conditions,” Nelepa said.Nelepa would not say how much the palms cost, but said the project is receiving funding from the Dubai Municipality. The company plans to turn to advertising and branding to meet future costs, he said.

Source:Thomson Reuters Foundation

FFORD CHALLENGES GAMERS TO

REVAMP URBAN TRAVELord Motor Company announced recently during Gamescom a competition that challenges video game developers to cre-ate solutions for global mobility issues.The Ford Smart Mobility Game Challenge, developed with Cologne Game Lab, en-courages developers to turn the challenge of integrating dif-ferent transport modes within a city into fun and engaging on-line games. The learnings from the Ford Smart Mobility Game Challenge could lead to inno-vative solutions and new ap-proaches to integrating urban transport, with joined-up door-to-door journeys. For instance, the games developed could re-ward participating commuters for successful journeys, based on criteria such as time-taken, cost, comfort and convenience. They also could utilise personal data and technology including smart phones and watches.

Bjoern Bartholdy, professor for me-dia design and co-director, Cologne Game Lab

Will Farrelly, User Experience Inno-vation, Ford Smart Mobility, Ford of Europe

Tracy Fullerton, director of the USC Games Program and chair of the Interactive Media & Games Division, University of Southern California

Dan Greenawalt, creative director at Turn 10 Studios in Redmond, Wash-ington, U.S.

Prof. Paolo Tumminelli, Design Con-cepts, Köln International School of Design

The winner will receive €10,000 and the opportunity to show their work at the 2016 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Five finalists will be chosen by a panel of gaming and mobility experts, including:


SMART CITIES NEWS

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today directed the Housing and Urban Development officials to submit rec-ommendations within one month for choosing the best workable model for solid waste management.The Chief Minister asked the Adminis-trative Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Department to examine the proposals and submit recommendations within a month for selecting the best workable model, which fits within the state’s available budgetary resources.

NDMC ‘SMART GRID’ PROJECT TO IMPROVE POWER DISTRIBUTION

he NDMC is coming up with a Rs 500-crore “Smart Grid” project aimed at reducing losses through better power distribution and checking thefts and faults in trans-mission.”We are coming up with a Smart Grid project to improve power distribution in areas under NDMC’s jurisdiction.”The project, a part of the smart city initiative, will enable us to accurately judge power requirements of each local-

ity, cut down on outages and sell off the surplus,” a senior NDMC official said.The Union Power Min-istry has, in-principle, approved the project and the Council gave nod to it in a meeting last week.

“The project with an estimated cost of Rs 500 crore has been divided into three phases — replacing old equipment and cables, installing smart metres in households and institutions under NDMC jurisdic-tion, and developing a software to improve the efficiency of electricity distribution,” the official said.”We will rope in consultants for the tech-nology development. A software will be developed to work out the future load requirement in every area accurately.”If there is defi-ciency of electricity in a particular area, we will be able to schedule the distribution of power there in

advance,”?he added.

At present, the civic body meets a peak demand of 380 MW of elec-tricity during summers but in win-ters, it comes down to 90 MW.”So, during winters when less electricity is required, we will sell off the sur-plus electricity beforehand as the software will help us to give accu-rate figures regarding consumption and demand,” said the official.The smart grid system will also help pre-dict voltage interruption.”Though the first phase works, including the overhaul of old cables, transform-ers and other equipment, are likely to cost us a big amount, it will be beneficial in the long run.The new ‘smart metres’ will help online bill generation and trace habitual de-faulters,” he added.

SOURCE: PTI

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J&K Calls for Solid Waste Management Solutions

“We need to render better services in solid waste management, which is one of the basic essential services provided to the people to keep our environs clean,” Sayeed said.The Chief Minister gave the direc-tions after a presentation on solid waste management, made by a Slo-venian firm – IME-Insol, which has executed several European Union

projects in Austria, Germany, Croatia and Italy.Putting his weight firmly behind framing policies that promote cleaner and healthier environment, the Chief Minister called for pressing the accelerator on adopting best practices in tackling the ever-growing prob-lem of solid waste management.To begin with, he said the two capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu and health resorts of Gulmarg, Patnitop and Pahalgam will start using the selected technology in solid waste management.”Once implemented successfully, the models will be replicated in other parts of the state in a phased manner,” he added.Emphasising upon strengthen-ing municipal laws governing urban local bodies to effectively deal with growing prob-lem of waste disposal, the Chief Minister said due to rapid and haphazard urbanisation, the state needs to thwart the potential threat which is staring our environment in the face. He said a beginning has to be made in adopting models that would hardly have any impact on existing human habitations.”Futuristically, we can also think of trading in waste for generating income on investment,” he said referring to the high-cost models that not only segregate and recycle waste, but also produce high-on-demand biogas and products with higher added value.The Chief Minister observed that Jammu and Kashmir needs a ‘perspective plan’ for building capacities to recycle majority of its sol-id waste for production of biogas and bio-fuel.”The remaining waste will then require minimal use of land for dumping purposes,” he added. SOURCE:PTI


SMART CITIES NEWS

WMEGHALAYA LAUNCHES ‘SMART

CLASSROOM’ PROGRAM WITH MICROSOFT INDIA

With a commitment to transform education through technology, the Government of Meghalaya recently launched the ‘Smart Classroom’ program, in collaboration with Microsoft India, at Pine Mount School. The State Government partnered with Mi-crosoft India for this project to effectively implement technology in education and creating an environment where students and teachers communicate, collaborate, create, access and consume content using Microsoft technology.The ‘Smart Classroom’ program was launched by Dr. Mukul M. Sangma, Hon’ble Chief Minis-ter of Meghalaya in the presence of Shri Barkos Warjri, IAS, Chief Secretary, Shri

D.P. Wahlang, IAS, Commissioner & Sec-retary IT of the State, and Mr. Neeraj Gill, General Manager – Public Sector, Micro-soft India. ”Encouraged by the successful completion and the positive response to-wards this project, the Government of Me-ghalaya will be launching additional digital classrooms in the state which will be using Windows based devices. Additionally, the state will also be conducting a series of digital awareness and literacy events with Ramakrishna Mission over the course of the next few days to mark the ‘Digital India Week’.Speaking on the occasion, Neeraj Gill, General Manager – Public Sector, Micro-

soft India, said, “Microsoft is committed to supporting the Indian Government in its vision of a Digital India. We believe inte-grating technology in education can play an instrumental role in helping realize this vision and building engaged, aware and digitally empowered citizens. Using Win-dows-based tablets, these classes were aimed at fostering digital learning and teaching using Microsoft Office tools such as Sway, Office Online: Word Online, Ex-cel Online, PowerPoint Online, OneNote Online and Office 365 for study projects in varied subjects such as History, Geogra-phy, Biology, Physics and Chemistry.

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KANDY TO BE DEVELOPED AS SRI LANKA’S FIRST

SMART CITYri Lanka’s central hill capital of Kandy will be developed as the first ‘Smart City’ in the island, the newly sworn-in Minister of Town Planning and Water Resources Rauf Hakeem said. The government has already allocated 3 billion rupees to carry out three major water supply projects in the Kandy district, the Minister revealed.

KANDY


SMART CITIES NEWS

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ISRO TEAMS UP WITH URBAN DEVELOP MINISTRY, TO MAP 4,041 TOWNS

The Indian Space Research Organisation has tied up with the Union Urban Develop-ment Ministry for mapping over 500 towns and cities, to make a base plan for bet-ter planning and management.

his base plan will further help the town planners to prepare a master plan for many fast urbanising local bodies.The mapping is be-ing currently done for mu-nicipal local bodies with a population of more than a lakh.The project is expect-ed to start by next month.Mr. V.K. Dadhwal was speaking at a news con-ference held to elaborate on additional features in-corporated in the Bhuvan, country’s geo-platform launched in 2009.

Source: PTI

“We have tied up with the Ministry of Urban Development to map over 4,041 areas. This includes around 500 urban local bodies. After mapping these cities and towns, we can prepare a base plan. This can help urban planners prepare a better master plan.”

- V K Dadhwal, Director of ISRO’s National Remote

Sensing Centre

2nd Smart Cities India Expo 2016Date: 11-13 May, 2016Place: New Delhi, IndiaOrganiser: Exhibitions India GroupTel.: +91 11 4279 5000Email: [email protected].: www.SmartCitiesIndia.com

Smart City Expo & CongressDate: 4-7 November, 2015Place: Shanghai, ChinaOrganiser: Shanghai International Advertis-ing & Exhibition Co., LtdWeb.: www.smartcitychina.com.cn

Urban Mobility IndiaDate: 24-27, November 2015Place: New Delhi, IndiaOrganiser: Institute of Urban Transport (India) Tel.: +91 11- 66578700-709Email: [email protected].: www.urbanmobilityindia.in

Africa Urban Infrastructure Investment ForumDate: 30 Nov-3 Dec, 2015Place: Sandton, South AfricaOrganiser: Thebe Reed ExhibitionsEmail: [email protected].: www.auiif.com

CEBIT – INDIADate: 29-31, October 2015Place: Bengaluru, IndiaOrganiser: Hannover Milano Fairs India Pvt. Ltd.Web.: www.cebit-india.com

Smart City Expo World CongressDate: 17-19, November 2015Place: Barcelona, SpainOrganiser: Fira BarcelonaWeb.: www.smartcityexpo.com

CONFERENCE & EVENTS


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29.30.31 Oct 2015 BIEC, Bengaluru

Theme: D!conomy - 'The Digital Economy’How digital technologies will impact our businesses, lifestyle and workplace.


Focus on Digital Transformational Leaders, Future of Work, 4G Enabled Enterprise, Digital Banking, and Cyber Security.

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THE 100 SMART CITIES OF INDIA

*Jammu & Kashmir has asked for more time to decide on the potential smart city.

**12 cities have been shortlisted from Uttar Pradesh against 13 cities allocated to that state.

MAP : Urbana World

Map Design : Abhishek Jain

R.N.I. NO. MPBIL/2015/61352 | DT OF PUBLICATION: September 01 2015

urbana world july-aug 2015 edition

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