feature-as india adds 100 smart cities, one tells a cautionary tale - solar powered street lights

Lavasa, India, Sept 3 (
Thomson Reuters Foundation-
When David Cooper and his wife are looking for a place to retire, they want a place to stay away from the crowded streets of Mumbai, from the river or the lake where pollution has deteriorated and green spaces have disappeared.
They don't have to go too far. they bought one.
Lavasa, a private city, is building a four-bedroom apartment on the mountain for the elderly
An hour's drive from India's first smart city.
But, as developers of Lavasa, their retirement dreams quickly get worse after a year of competing for environmental permits and surviving --
Closed for a long time and ran out of cash.
"It was very primitive when we moved in.
The road is like the track, we can drink water from the tap, there is no power outage, we feel absolutely safe, "Cooper said in a cafe in Lavasa.
"Now, there is rubbish everywhere, the building is half finished, the road is pitted and broken
Because there are very few security personnel left.
"Our dreams have become something else," he said . "
With the rapid development of urbanization, governments around the world are making cities "smarter" by using data and digital technologies in safety, health care, energy, mobility, water and waste management ", sustainable development and livability.
According to United Nations data, there is no more urgent need for this than India, and India is expected to surpass China as the world's most populous country by 2022.
But ravasa's abandoned buildings and pitted roads are far from the blueprint of a city modeled on the Italian seaside town of Portofino, which has about 250,000 people working and entertaining.
The decline of Lavasa is a warning for India's $7.
5 billion plans to turn 100 city centers into smart cities by 2020
The Internet and modern transportation systems are fast, analysts say.
The federal scheme did not solve structural problems such as poor design and ignored the low
Income and marginalized groups, according to planners and rights groups.
"There is no fixed goal, there is no clear goal --
Cutting delivery or evaluating plans has a lot of confusion about what makes a city "smart," says Saswat Bandyopadhyay, a professor at the University of Ahmedabad, who teaches a book about smart cities
"1,000 CCTV cameras or 100 solar energy units can be installed in a city --
The power street lamp is called intelligence.
This is not the case, "he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The U. N.
It is predicted that by 2050, the world's urban population will grow from 70% to 55%.
India's urban center population will increase by about 0. 3 billion over the next 20 years, requiring an investment of $1.
According to McKinsey, a consulting firm, 2 trillion is in response to the shift.
"There is a need for planned urbanization, not advertising --
So far, we have seen temporary, unplanned urbanization, "said Shirish Sankhe, McKinsey India's senior partner.
"The mission of smart city is good and necessary, but we need it in addition to other efforts to improve the city center.
He said that with the regional upgrading of each city, they have created "excellent islands" that need to be expanded widely so that everyone can benefit.
Sankhe said a solution would be to build at least 25 new satellite cities near the country's largest city center, each with a maximum capacity of 1 million people.
He said they will benefit from the proximity to the big cities and careful planning.
But there are few examples of success from the ancient konstanfo to the Naypyidaw in Myanmar. built cities.
Gujarat, in western India alone, plans 24 new smart cities before the federal plan starts in 2015.
However, these are rarely achieved.
Amaravati, India's first green capital in decades, has been hailed as a planned model city.
But it is far behind the plan and is criticized for ignoring the protests of displaced farmers and the ecological impact of buildings on farmland close to rivers. “Purpose-
Cities built are often just closed communities beautified.
A city must develop organically and people mix with purpose, "said Raj Cherubal, chief executive of Chennai smart city, which oversees the upgrading of southern cities.
"Smart cities are not just technology,
Their quality of life is better.
"A better quality of life should not be directed only to a small number of people," he said . ".
However, according to the advocacy group housing and land rights network, most of the cities in India's smart city mission only upgraded small areas with an average area of less than 5% of the total urban area (HLRN)in New Delhi.
Shivani Chaudhry, executive director of HLRN, said that this will have less than a quarter impact on the urban population of about 0. 4 billion people in India.
"This is a way to limit urban development and there is limited focus on marginalized groups, including indigenous people, women and other ethnic minorities," she said . ".
Focusing on technology could expand inequality, she said, and upgrading would increase the risk of middle-class and expulsion.
In the planned third smart city, she said, deportation of slum dwellers has already emerged.
Rahul Kapoor, mission director of smart city, said the plan combines the integrated planning and implementation of the urban renewal plan, aiming at the City --wide benefits.
The result, he said, would be inclusive cities that provide "decent quality of life for every city resident, regardless of their economic status, background, gender, age or disability ".
In Lavasa, another risk for Greenfield cities is obvious: housing is only a fraction of its expected population, with its previous luxury clubhouse and convention center looking shabby and its technology and foundation
Spokesperson for Lavasa Corporation, a unit of Hindustan Construction Corporation
No email was answered seeking comment.
"It's hard to build a city from scratch.
"It takes time to grow," says Jimmy Shaw . " He runs several restaurants and a hotel in Lavasa.
"We people who have houses here, we still love it.
It's hard to see the deterioration of our dream city, "he said.
Hundreds of villagers gave up their land for the city and their livelihood was threatened.
Many people are placed in pucca or permanent homes and find jobs in newly built homes and businesses.
Their children joined free English.
Language schools run by developers.
But as the funds dry up, the future of the school is uncertain, those who do security
Like a former farmer of Satish Pasalkar
No payment for a few months.
When Lavasa came, our lives improved.
We have new opportunities and different options for the future . "
"Only if the city is booming can we do a good job. ” (
Rina Chandran @ rinachandran, edited by Zoe Tabari, reports.
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