This document discusses the concept and development of smart cities. It notes that rapid urbanization is straining resources and infrastructure in cities. To address these challenges, the development of smart cities is seen as inevitable. The key aspects of smart cities include using digital technologies to enhance performance, reduce costs and resource use, and better engage citizens. India has a plan to build 100 smart cities as part of its Digital India initiative. The benefits of smart cities include more sustainable economic development and improved services like electricity, water, transportation and waste management through the use of sensor data and smart grids.

1. “Smart City”:- The quest to build it
Why Smart City ?
Due to rapid urbanisation & migration of peoples from rural area to urban areas for
job, better Standard of Life & education. Cities have a major impact on the
economic & social development of nations. They are genuine platforms where
people live, where companies have their business & in which numerous services are
provided. What’s more, they are major centers of consumption of resources.
Currently, cities consume 75% of the world’s resources, energy & generate 80% of
greenhouse gases, occupying only 2% of the world’s territory. Without a doubt, this
evolution raises a very important change with regard to the deployment &
management of all types of resource & infrastructures within cities. Hence cities
need to get smarter about how they manage the utilities, transport, congestion,
healthcare as well as education. Therefore development of the Smart Cities
becomes inevitable.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision ‘Digital India’, has a plan to build 100 smart
cities across the country. Modi in his speech said, “Cities in the past were built on
riverbanks. They are now built along highways. But in the future, they will be built
based on availability of optical fiber networks and next-generation infrastructure.”

2. With increasing urbanisation and the load on rural land, the government has now
realised the need for Smart cities that can cope with the challenges of urban living
and also be magnets for investment.
What is Smart City ?
A Smart City is a newly developing city near Urban area which uses Latest digital
technologies to enhance performance & well being, to reduce costs & resource
consumption, and to engage more effectively & actively with its citizens.
Key 'smart' sectors include Information technology, Communication, Infrastructure,
Transport, Energy, Health care, Water & Waste Management. A smart city should
be able to respond faster to city and global challenges than one with a simple
'transactional' relationship with its citizens.
What makes a City Smart ?
Main Key Features followed for development of Smart City
 E -Governance,
 Infrastructure & Transport
 Communication Technology
 Energy Conservation
 Water & Waste Management
 Smart Homes & Building Technology
 Healthcare
 Citizen

3. In transportation, for instance, the maximum travel time should be 30 minutes in
small & medium-sized cities and 45 minutes in metros. The water availability has to
be 135 litres per capita per day. In addition, 95 per cent of residences should have
retail, parks, primary schools and recreational areas accessible within 400 metres.
Benefits of Smart City
In a smart city, economic development & activity is sustainable & rationally incremental by
virtue of being based on success-oriented market drivers such as supply and demand. They
benefit everybody, including citizens, businesses, the government & the environment.

4. The smart city ensures the idea of developing the urban hubs which would be running on
technology to provide better electricity, water supply, improves sanitation, recycling of
water & waste management, proper traffic & transport management systems.
In a Smart city all the data that is collected from sensors – electricity, gas, water, traffic &
other government analytics – is carefully compiled & integrated into a smart grid & then
fed into computers that can focus on making the city as efficient as possible.

5. The Evolution of Smart City
In 1949, the United Nations determined that the World Town Planning Day would be
commemorated on 8th November of every year in order to acknowledge and
promote the role of planning in creating sustainable communities.
The concept of smart cities begins at the time when the entire world was facing
one of the worst economic crises. In 2008, IBM began work on a 'smarter cities'
concept as part of its Smarter Planet initiative. By the beginning of 2009, the
concept had captivated the imagination of various nations across the globe.
Countries like South Korea, UAE and China began to invest heavily into their
research and formation. Today, a number of excellent precedents exist that India
can emulate, such as those in Vienna, Aarhus, Amsterdam, Cairo, Lyon, Málaga,
Malta, the Songdo International Business District near Seoul, Verona etc.
Smart City In India
The cities with ongoing or proposed smart cities include Kochi in Kerala,
Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Aurangabad in Maharashtra, Manesar in Delhi NCR,
Khushkera in Rajasthan, Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Ponneri in Tamil Nadu &
Tumkur in Karnataka. Many of these cities will include special investment regions or
special economic zones with modified regulations & tax structures to make it
attractive for foreign investment. This is essential because much of the funding for
these projects will have to come from private developers & from abroad.