My Dream City Bareilly

Transcription

1 My Dream City Bareilly Name : K RADHA KRISHNA Category : Open Category Address : 13/23, Old Rajinder Nagar, Age : 24 New Delhi Father Name: K L Varma Contact No. : Our city has long standing history. It played a significant role during the regimes of many rulers and many others. The prominence of our city can also be viewed during times of Independence struggle. After Independence, gradually it became a major hub of Education, Health, Culture, Trade and Economy and emerged as urban agglomerated city. Now with God s blessings, Political Will, Strong Administrative competency and recognising its geopolitical importance it is selected for Smart City Mission, which the new government initiated and thus we got chance to make Our Dream City into Reality. Though empowering local government and transforming the city under this is a welcoming step but it has its own challenges associated with in reaching people s aspirations and expectations. The first and foremost problem is the non-availability of universally accepted definition of a smart city. It means different things to different people. The conceptualisation of Smart City, therefore, varies from city to city and country to country, depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the city residents. But the core objective of any smart city is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of Smart Solutions to different kinds of problems. To provide for the aspirations and needs of the citizens, the major aim of planners should be developing the entire urban ecosystem, which is represented by the four pillars of comprehensive developmentinstitutional, physical, social and economic infrastructure. Also the policy formulation should move from one shoe fit all approach to decentralisation and one stop solution for all problems and grievances. Our city has its own unique, naturalistic, rich culture and mixed traditions. So any development that will take place should be done by conserving and preserving this culture. For any development to happen it is

2 important to recognise the prevailing problems. Because of increasing migration from surrounding places, unplanned urbanisation, rise in number of tourists, and also because of its geographical location the major problems facing by the city are Traffic associated with congestion of roads, water scarcity and water pollution, rise in number of slums and associated health problems, increase in crime rate posing challenge to law and order situation, degradation of natural environment with rise in pollution in all forms, mismanagement of solid wastes, water sewages and flooding of low lying areas during rainy seasons. These problems can be addressed with Holistic, Comprehensive, Multi-model strategy and Smart Solutions combining with development of Physical, Institutional, Social and Economic Infrastructure as mentioned earlier. Physical Infrastructure includes Roads, Sanitation, Solid waste management and Sewage water treatment plants, Efficient urban mobility and Public transport, Affordable housing, especially for the poor. Main market areas and several important roads have become very congested and traffic jams became common phenomenon. So construction of separate roads alternative to present roads to divert certain kinds of vehicles like trucks, buses or constructing fly-over in present road, or establishing dedicated transit way will be convenient steps. To address the ever increasing traffic problems we need to encourage people to use public transport in the name of JANMARG and initiate Integrated Multi-Model Transport System like BRTS, MRTS combining with Dynamic Passenger Information System and Intelligent Traffic Management by using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Smart Parking Systems like multi-level parking, community parking areas. Also to address the air pollution and to protect environment we can use Automatic Air Sensors which consistently measures the pollutants content and warns the public. Following concept of green roads in construction of new roads which includes growing of trees on either sides of road, using eco-friendly material for construction will be more beneficial. Waste management should get significant importance and scientific process should be followed to handle it. Waste to Energy, fuel, fertilizers should be encouraged. Separate mechanism should be developed to take care of Medical and Hazardous waste. Water management should be dealt very carefully as it is vital source for survival of human. Awareness should be brought in people regarding water conservation, reduce, reuse, and recycle of water (concept of fresh and grey water). Strict adherence to Green building codes (Guidelines of TERI and GRIHA ratings), Energy efficient devices, Smart meters with proper monitoring and management should

3 be implemented. Focus should shift from traditional energy sources to renewable energy mechanisms to have energy security in the city. Institutional Infrastructure consists of robust IT connectivity, Digitalization, Electronic service delivery, good governance, especially e-governance and m-governance, Citizen Engagement as citizens are city s eyes and ears, Public information, Grievance Redressal. As people in urban areas are running against time, they are no long willing to wait in long standing queues. So, the IT and Mobile revolution that took place in recent times can be better utilized for providing services the people want. Various kinds of means like Online, Mobile, Kiosks, Common Service Centres, and Social Media can be utilised as bill and tax payment gateways and Service delivery mechanisms. GIS tools can be used for approving land permissions. Taking help of ISRO s Bhuvan and other ICT applications for proper management and monitoring of various constructions and developmental activities in City. Digitalisation of records and integrating with GI Cloud (like Meghraj) and developing e-gov applications will enable people for easy access to them. Also the usage of ICT tools can curb the corruption in the society as it will decrease the personal contact between persons and government employees. Constant surveillance through proper monitoring with help of CCTVs, Community police force can help in tackling crime and making city safe and secured. Social Infrastructure has the components that provide basic minimum needs to public and also those that improve dignity of life like Adequate water supply, Assured electricity supply, Sustainable environment, Safety and Security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly, Health and Education. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan provides the platform to address issues like open defecation and unhygienic sanitation. Some areas around Bus Stand and other places in our city became free grounds for open defecation. This is causing huge foul smell around the areas and also making entire locality dirty. This will further damage the image of our city as these are the areas where tourists will first come in contact with. So constructing public toilets, community toilets, using bio-digester toilets, involving NGOs like Sulabh will be welcoming ideas to solve this problem. With proper campaign, we can bring awareness and behavioural change in people as it is the responsibility of people to keep premises clean. With the growth of urbanisation our city is becoming like concrete jungle and can turn into urban heat island which will have huge impact on public health. So construction of Community Parks, play grounds

4 will make the people healthy and also solves the problem of Non- Communicable Diseases. Growing trees in all possible areas and maintaining them properly will make path for Sustainable environment. Though our city is educational and medical hub, it s becoming very difficult for poor people to have access to quality education and health facilities. So this problem can be addressed by properly using ICT tools like Tele-Education and Tele-Medicine. This can transform lives of poor people as these are the reasons for maximum out of pocket expenditure for them. The construction of Community halls and easily accessible low cost recreational centres will be progressive step in increasing people to people ties and making society more friendly and secular. As world is getting more globalised and digitalised establishing public Wi-Fi hotspots could help the people stay connected and also it facilitates the government in efficient delivery of online services. Economic infrastructure includes those components which secure lives of people financially by providing livelihood means to them. This can also reduce the economic inequality in society and has the potential to eliminate poverty. Establishing various kinds of Vocational Education and Skill Developmental centres will transform present quantitative demographic burden to qualitative. Our city has the potential of attracting huge number of tourists by improving connectivity, local infrastructure and security. This will create huge employment opportunities to local youth, so they need to be trained with required skills to harness these benefits. Areas around our city are famous for various kinds of Indigenous products but they are lacking market for them, so by providing separate market centres for these products will raise economy of the city. At present, era of Start Ups is going on, so there is need to establish Incubation centres and Trade Facilitation centres which empower the youth to transform as Entrepreneur. As cost of expenditure and capital required to invest in other nearby cities has increased, many companies are looking towards our city as their investment destination. So the ease of doing business must be made investor friendly at same time protecting labour rights, as industries has the potential to create huge number of jobs and increase standard of living. Doing all these require lot of financial resources and it can be met through rationalising taxes like increasing tax base, proper collection of Octroi, levying user and developmental charges, issuing Municipal Bonds, collaborating with private agencies in form of Public Private Partnerships, involving corporates through Corporate Social Responsibility. Smart Cities

5 doesn t only mean having sky scrapers and wide roads, it should include Smart Citizens, Smart governance, Smart Education, Smart Healthcare, Smart Building, Smart Mobility, Smart Infrastructure, Smart Technology and Smart Energy that drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development. Making the city Smarter will transforms the existing areas (retrofit and redevelop), including slums, into better planned ones, thereby improving liveability of the whole City. New areas (Greenfield) will be developed around cities in order to accommodate the expanding population in urban areas. Comprehensive development in this way will improve quality of life, create employment and enhance incomes for all, especially the poor and the disadvantaged, leading to inclusive Cities. Developing our city both sustainably and inclusively can act as light house to other aspiring cities.