The action plans designed for Smart cities needs to be more holistic for the development of small/developing cities of the country. Elaborate (200 Words)
Refer - Financial Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 5 years
KEY POINTS
· Most of the action plans are just replications of successful projects in large cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, etc which may not be appropriate for small and/or developing cities of the country.
· In most of the smart cities, the development process is planned in some pockets of the cities. For instance, in Bhubaneswar, it is in and around the road—Janpath.
· For instance, Bhubaneswar primarily needs a frequent mode of public transportation to provide connectivity with nearby towns, but the action plan started with the non-motorised mode of transportation for last-mile travel.
· In Pune, for modal transport, there already exists CNG buses and a BRT system; a metro network is also in progress, and, yet, the city is procuring e-buses. The inclusion of the new transport mode may cause disruption in the transportation system as well as in the administrative process.
· Given that urbanisation is one of the prime developmental issues, most of our Indian states are not efficient enough to decide where and how to prioritise their public finance amongst core developmental issues including education, health or small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) or for the city development missions of the state. L
· Lack of synergy between the practical evidence, research and action plans are diverting resource allocation from the priority sectors, especially for the backward states of the country.
Comprehensive approach
· Incremental actions, like the use of the battery operated electric rickshaws, at least for last-mile and short distance travel, car-pooling, etc, could actually enhance the capability of the system.
· Transformational actions are already in the strategic plan to change the fundamental attributes of the system in response to actual or expected impacts of the mission.
· For a holistic policy like the smart city mission, experts from different fields realise that a comprehensive understanding of the mission across all stakeholders is an urgent need to arrive at a common framework for the cities.
· Building the capacity of individuals, communities and governance systems to adopt the social and economic transitions should be the topmost priority of the mission.
