Smart city mere sapno ka shahar

Smart City : Mere Sapno ka Shahar

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By Debkumar Bhadra Shore Point Village, Bambooflat Post, South Andaman-744107 Web : www.debkumarbhadra.blogspot.in, Email : debkumarbhadra@gmail.com

aking a step in the direction of making this India’s century, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi announced an ambitions mission of recasting the urban landscape by setting up 100 smart cities across the country over a period of time. It came as a nice surprise when media broke the news that Port Blair featured in the coveted list of 100 smart cities. Since then there has been a sense of joy and enthusiasm among the islanders who feel the initiative would bring visible change in the way the city functions.

What is a Smart City ?

In a major departure from conventional DPR based approach, the government in this instant did not give a particular definition to the mission, but left it open

for the people to give it a definition that suits their needs and aspirations. The mission document therefore says Smart City means different things to different people, therefore, varies from city to city and country to country. However to guide cities in the mission, following infrastructure elements has been identified for inclusion in Smart City namely (i) Adequate water supply (ii) Assured electricity (iii) Sanitation including solid waste management (iv) Efficient urban mobility and public transport (v) Affordable housing (vi) Robust IT connectivity and digitalization (vii) Good governance, especially eGovernance and citizen participation (viii) Sustainable environment (ix) Safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and elderly and (x) Health and education.

Giving citizens the center stage, the initiative calls upon people to involve itself in the definition of Smart City, decisions on deploying Smart Solutions, implementing reforms, doing more with less and oversight during implementing and designing postproject structures, in order to make the Smart City

developments sustainable. It is therefore logical that the UT Administration and the Port Blair Municipal Council (PBMC) sought to seek comments and suggestions from the masses on smart city initiative. I hope fellow islanders would grab this opportunity to speak their mind on how they wish their Sapno ka Shahar to be and suggest ways to mitigate the problems faced by it. While doing so, I would restrict myself to one aspect of the issue namely efficient urban mobility and public transport.

Point to Ponder Notified in December 2011, the Master Plan for Port Blair Planning Area 2030 observes that Port Blair over the years engages manifold functions and activities because of which the town experiences a relatively high density and development spread over municipal area in an unplanned and sporadic manner. It also says that gross density of Port Blair as on 2010 is 60 PPH (Persons per hectare) which is expected to reach 132 PPH in the next 20 years.

Effect of having a population twice the prescribed standards (UDPFI guidelines suggest 60-90 PPH for hill town) is visible in the form of crowding in the city.

Almost every part of the city is occupied, leaving little scope for development. Recent expansion of municipal limits to cover surrounding areas is a welcome step.

However, due to obvious reasons, dependence of the rest of the islands on Port Blair can never be eliminated completely, not at-least in the near future.

Therefore planners have the onerous task of thinking smartly to cope up with challenges posed by the city.

Transport, specifically road transport is one sector that urgently needs smart thinking since incidence of road accidents are on a rise and innocent lives are being lost at regular intervals. The situation has become such that with “one death and four injuries

every minute” India has acquired the dubious distinction of reporting highest number of road fatalities in the world. According to NCRB report on road accidents in India, 137423 lives were lost in road accidents in the year 2013 and the number of accident death show an uptrend compared to previous year’s figures; Andaman and Nicobar Islands are no exception.

The manner in which a Head Constable Suresh Kumar attached to CID wing of A&N Police died in an accident in front of his residence at Kamrajnagar, Brookshabad during mid-October this year shocked the city. This is not the only accidental death, but the latest one in the stretch of road from Chakkargaon to Brookshabad.

Earlier during May 2015, four persons suffered severe injuries when a car hit a bike at Chakkargaon. Similarly during April 2014, Ashok Ram, Retd Assistant Director (Admin) died in a road accident near Chakkargaon when the car he was driving was hit by a truck coming from opposite direction. Before that during February 2013, MS Yadav, a 55 year old Head Constable was killed two weeks before his daughter’s marriage. He was hit by a speeding moped coming from opposite direction at Chakkargaon. Similarly death of Prantik Sarkar a student of Class XII during April 2013 was caused in a road accident involving a private bus at Diary Farm Junction. Death of two students at Goal Ghar junction; are only a few pointers to quote from recent memory.

Smart rearrangement of city’s transport services Given the undulating topology of the city, every half a kilometer on the road we either have a hill to overcome or a sharp bend to negotiate. Under such a difficult terrain, long chassis busses plying on stage carrier permit within the city that has population twice the prescribed standards that too owned by private players are an absolute misfit. On many occasion speed breakers has been demanded and put in place to rein in speeding busses, but such a step met with limited success since the same road is used by pedestrians and motor vehicles of every class. Private operators whose survival depends on income generated from plying buses are blamed for rashness, but blaming is not going to take us anywhere.

Situation demand smart rearrangement of city’s transport service. Authorities could think of taking private busses off the city roads and allot them ATR Express routes so that their livelihood is not affected.

To make up for the gap created by withdrawal of

private busses, State Transport Services (STS) could be roped in to operate within the city by pulling off its fleet from Express routes. Such a step would help eliminate problems associated with private operators such as mad rush to pick-up passengers, halting at no-scheduled stops etc.

Authorities could also explore the possibility of allowing share taxi/auto to ply in select routes in and around the city so that new avenues of employment is opened while commuting needs are also satiated.

Electronic surveillance by CCTV Camera Regulating traffic is another aspect that has a strong bearing on urban mobility hence needs modernization for the mission to become successful. As of now traffic management is done manually which allows room for subjectivity. A section of motorists thus tend to flout norms putting lives of fellow road users at risk.

Electronic surveillance by CCTV Camera at vantage points including traffic circle could solve the problem to a greater extent. This will enable authorities to spot and book violators in a smart and efficient manner.

With CCTV cameras in place motorists would be tempted to drive in a disciplined manner and the city roads would become a lot safer.

Before closing I consider it worthwhile to concede that the measures suggested above are neither path breaking nor claim to be the only solution to the debacle the city faces. But the regularity, with which innocent lives are being lost on city roads, calls for urgent revamp of the urban transport sector.

Suggestions noted above intend to give authorities some fodder in evolving a suitable mechanism to make the roads safer in our Sapno ka Shahar.

I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude towards all those whose effort has put Port Blair in the coveted list of smart cities and thank the UT Administration as well as Port Blair Municipal Council (PBMC) for its initiative to connect with the citizenry on the issue; the most important being inviting opinion/aspirations from public on the smart city project. Hope public consultation will help authorities in planning for the Smart City in a better way. Thank you very much for giving us this unique opportunity.

Debkumar Bhadra, Shore Point, Bambooflat, South Andaman – 744107, Web : https :/debkumarbhadra.blogspot.com, Email : debkumarbhadra@gmail.com