Sunny Dua
Srinagar and Jammu – two capital cities of this strategically located J&K State are in race to be included in Smart City Project initiated by Union Government to give people a quality life. Which stage of this race we have reached is a subject being dealt by Housing and Urban Development Department (H&UDD) but what Jammu as well as Srinagar need is entirely a different question to be understood and answered before we actually get Smart Cities.
The so called organised colonies besides huge clusters of thickly populated, unorganised, hapzardously raised and ill planned residential and industrial areas besides business centres that we have today in the name of capital cities are a passé. The task we have before us is to create smart cities within the given space and also add infrastructures with technological advance delivery systems and most importantly a modern day transport that could ease cities from existing mess.
The way we are living has diminished physical activity by individuals both in Jammu as well as Srinagar and that’s affecting people’s health. So how do we change and live an active life is what is required to be designed when it comes to make a smart city. We need to get people to move and not just make them stay within four walls called homes. The smart cities must be designed to order a system wherein designs are used as good tools to empower people and build bridges between them.
Before we conceive any idea of a smart city we need passion to get people to move. To start with, in next few years there should be a behavioural shift in lifestyle of people to the extent that they become active. Architecture and design play a major role in city designs wherein we can engage people socially and increase physical activities in them. Our cities need sidewalks, parks and public spaces that define physical health of any good or smart city which for the moment are missing from Jammu as well as Srinagar.
How city responds is visible from people jogging, walking to their work places, using public transport system or depending less on private transport. In Jammu thousands of students and workers besides officials could be seen travelling for hours from one place to another in most shabby and ill planned transport system that directly affects their health and state’s growth.
Dingy public transport system and not so friendly infrastructure in Jammu as well as Srinagar has made people depend upon their own vehicles and become inactive. These developments have kept people in a captive state. Now, when we are in race to get a Smart City we must design Jammu and Srinagar where psychological health of people is taken into consideration. This subject will be related to how smart cities are designed in near future and who knows that both these cities become model cities for rest of the country.
Jammu in true sense will be a smart city if we could ensure individual sense of belonging, mental wellbeing, sense of security and create comfort spaces that mean physical dimensions of Jammu wherein citizens could lead a healthy and better social life. The designers will have to keep in mind that malnutrition, climate change, vocational trainings, privilege places and people to people connect serve people and engage them in physical as well as mental activities that’s needed for a smart city.
Jammu city is basically a twin city separated by river Tawi and it should be designed with this separation in mind making it a mature city and it should not impede connectivity between people and space. Old Jammu uses gravity for water supply, slopes for free flow of sewerage and its geographical features with river and hills on one side and an entire modern day city on other side gives planners an opportunity to control humans and space in a way that it unlocks limited opportunity of city. The design should be so that celebratory and public functions become order of day and urban environment cleaned besides traffic management system streamlined.
Keeping in mind that any house that doesn’t have living room is not a house just because people come, meet and retire; city should be like that fulfils fundamental needs. The best city is where kids could play even during night hours, physical active options are available and night cricket kind of sports are encouraged as part of smart city. In nutshell there should be integrating physical activities in our lives if we actually want to have a smart city.
Eat points, libraries and book stores are needed. Physical appearances of our youth have changed drastically just because youth are not active enough. Height, chest size and even weight of an individual have changed over the period of time. Keeping in view these serious health issues, unspoken wishes of people are needed to be taken care of if we really need a smart city generally because we have a tendency to not to involve people in developmental issues.
Ideally speaking if we design cities for cars and parking we get to see cars and parking places around us and if we design cities for places and people we will have eminent people and wonderful paces to feel proud of. This means the planners need to ignite imagination of people, hold mega events, make city the legacy of people and lay thrust on individual interface. For this we need leadership that is a critical point. Mayor must talk to engineers and spend money on sidewalks but our state lacks even the elected Municipal Corporations. Sports administration needs to be involved, safety ensured and architectural innovation used to the extent that maximises infrastructure. The streets and roads should be more than just movement places rather public squares and allied places should be for enjoying and celebrations.
In Berlin, city mayor involves local people and tries to fulfil their wishes, planners and designers are made to fill gaps and the end result is a happy city. Contrarily, in Jammu and Kashmir we are not willing to engage young people. City of future depends upon roles that schools play in cities where physical education is needed and in Jammu physical education department doesn’t own even a single ground that it could call its own and plan activities for children.
Recess time has been cut in schools and educational institutions are located in shabby streets. Active kids are not there in Jammu. Whatever stadiums or grounds are available they can’t take load and everyone can’t even afford going to stadiums as well. This has resulted in increased anxiety and stress levels amongst children. How kids are going to school is necessary. If kids go to nearby schools we can reduce load on roads and kids as well.
We are required to take care of children and elders while designing our cities. Safe walkways for these people are needed. According to Master Plan of Jammu as well as Srinagar over 70 per cent roads don’t have sidewalks. Cyclists cycle on main roads. Imagine city of elderly and young. Right type of infrastructure is needed where mental and emotional wellbeing of people is considered more important. Work on metro or mono rail must start at this stage if we intend to achieve target within next five years.
There were times when children while on to their schools used to pluck fruits from nearby orchids or trees lined up on roads. Pokemon has now made people step out of their homes but we don’t have any system that could encourage children to move out. Can we have food in cities grown? Green and edible city is innovation, landscape architecture is innovation and a safe city where people prefer to walk than drive is innovation for a smart city.
Still important is that we preserve our heritage nd culture while developing a modern or smart city. Prime Minister Narendra Modi intends to develop 100 smart cities across the country where smart solutions for efficient use of available assets, resources and infrastructure are adopted. By the year 2030, urban areas are expected to house 40% of India’s population that would contribute 75% of India’s GDP and for that we need comprehensive development of physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure.
We do need electricity, sanitation, solid waste management, efficient urban mobility, public transport, affordable housing, robust IT connectivity, digitalization, good governance, e-Governance, citizen participation, sustainable environment, safety and security of citizens, and health and education but unless the smart cities that we intend to develop don’t let us adopt to behavioural shift and space planning we won’t be able to come out of captive state thats barring us to live in an actual smart city’
Under Smart Cities Mission Centre intends to invest a total of Rs. 48,000 crore in 100 cities across the country for 5 years and each Smart city will get Rs. 100 crore each for five years. Let the process continue but at the same time if these smart city projects meet the fate of those Special Economic Zones (SEZs) conceived earlier then it’s quite an uphill task. The state in order to have a smart city must first hold elections to Municipal Corporations, Municipal Committees and other Urban Local Bodies and then try sailing through all stages of the competition that’s mandatory.
(The author is an engineer and a qualified journalist)
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