Smart cities will be more than IT; govt working on features

The Urban Development Ministry is preparing a list of features that need to be incorporated for development of '100 Smart Cities' announced in the Budget with an outlay of Rs 7,060 crore in this fiscal.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Budget 2014-15 had announced developing 100 smart cities as satellite towns of larger cities and by modernising the existing mid-sized cities.
Addressing a seminar on real estate, Anand Singh Bhal, Economic Adviser, the Ministry of Urban Development, said discussions are on to make the policy for 100 smart cities, which will include the existing cities and new ones.
"Smart city is a new buzz word. It's not possible to make 100 new smart cities as it will take 20-30 years to build. So, instead of building 100 new smart cities, a lot of emphasis will be on making a city smart.

"Whatever the cities which are there, they will be impregnated with smart features and the new cities which will come up will be made smart," he said.
Stating that smart cities generally mean use of IT and digital data to improve efficiency for every services that cities provide, Bhal said the government will come up with a tangible and a broader definition, which will include not only IT solutions but other aspects that make cities livable.

"There are four silos in our ministry -- built-up area (CPWD), urban transport, water supply-sanitation and town country and planning. All the four have been asked to work out what are the smart features that needed to be incorporated in cities and come up with a list. As of now, the effort is going on," he added.

Bhal also mentioned that the new government is giving lot of emphasis on implementation and quick decision making.
On PPP in infrastructure projects, he suggested that there should be a re-negotiation clause to make it successful as it is difficult to make correct estimates at the time of award of contracts.
Speaking on the occasion, CBRE South Asia CMD Anshuman Magazine said the real estate sector faces two major challenges of fund scarcity and skill shortages.
However, he hoped that tax incentives for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and easing of FDI rules in Budget would boost domestic and foreign investment in the sector.

"REITs has a potential to bring billions and billions of dollars. Large number of assets are owned by REITs outside India," Magazine said.