“Smart cities are preparing us for the challenges of tomorrow”

Rahul Kapoor is currently the Director of Smart Cities Mission in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. An officer of the Indian Railway Accounts Service he has been responsible for the operational issues related to the implementation of Smart Cities Mission projects. He has been involved in the program design of various initiatives of the Ministry related to innovation, capacity building, standardization, liveability, and governance of Smart Cities.

By Rahul Kapoor

In the Ministry of Railways, as director of Finance, he gained tremendous expertise in the design and implementation of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects which is a foundation for the Smart Cities Mission. Rahul Kapoor has also worked extensively in Rail Land Development Authority on financial appraisal, modeling, and management of land development projects.

In a freewheeling conversation with Gajendra Upadhyay, he outlines the key success factors of the SCM so far and the learnings that will be a foundation for the next generation of smart cities in India.

The context in which the mission was started — improved governance, efficient delivery of services, better use of technology — how far do you think we have achieved these objectives.

Smart Cities Mission is a pursuit of Govt. of India to address larger, vernacular urban priorities of cities, to better the lives of citizens in Urban India.

Total Investments in around 5151 projects worth `2 lakh crore (USD 28 billion) in 100 cities is under implementation as part of the Smart Cities Mission.

• Physical progress: As on 7 February 2022, 6782 projects worth `1,89,312 crore (92% of total projects) have been tendered out of which 6,200 projects worth `1,64,593 crore (80% of total projects) have been working ordered. 3463 projects worth Rs. 58,841 crore (29% of total projects) have been completed.
• Financial progress: Since the launch of the Mission, the Central Government has released Rs. 28,289 crore for the 100 Smart Cities out of which the Smart Cities have already utilized Rs. 23,998 crore. It is noteworthy that the Utilization of GOI funds in the mission has increased from 18% in Mar 2018 to 88% of total release in Mar 2021.
• Key projects: In order to enhance walkability, increase the use of non-motorized and public transport, Smart Cities are implementing 776 Smart Road projects worth `26,205 crores. Further for the driving shift towards renewable sources of energy, these cities are implementing 94 Smart Solar projects worth `1,266 crores. Efficient management of water resources is key to climate change mitigation. Smart Cities are implementing 311 Smart Water projects worth `23,669 crores.
• In order to better manage used water, these Cities are implementing 262 Smart Wastewater projects worth `17,706 crores. 664 projects of bioenergy, conservation of water bodies, mobility including e-mobility, parks and riverfront development, etc. worth `11,404 crores are also being implemented by different Smart Cities.
• Despite the difficult times of COVID, the implementation of SCM projects is in full swing. 10 cities have been able to receive full GOI grants under the mission and are also doing some remarkable works. Bhopal, Indore, Visakhapatnam, Ranchi, Udaipur, Kakinada, Coimbatore, Surat, Chennai, Amaravati. There are another 20 cities that have received `400 crores each out of our `500 crore/city.

What has been some of the surprise learnings from the pandemic that can now become an integral part of technology-based solutions for all smart cities

In my understanding, one of the key virtues of a smart city is its ability to be prepared for the challenges of tomorrow. And without any doubt, technology/ digital interventions are going to help us in our preparedness.

The urban sector in India is in urgent need of whole-of-system innovation. In order to address the need for scale and speed, it is therefore essential to use the transformational force of data and emerging technologies in all aspects of the urban sectors.

Urban managers and administrators today require innovative tools that can provide them with objective insights on routine civic activities and use advanced predictive capabilities to plan for future challenges. This can ensure that cities have a responsible and sustainable evolution, mirroring the aspirations of their citizens.

The current landscape of technology and its deeper integration with the city dweller's everyday life and activities provide a host of options that can fundamentally alter the way urban challenges are solved.

75 cities have already developed and operationalised Integrated Command and Control Centers (ICCCs) in their cities. The cities have learned from one another and the Ministry facilitated this learning.

These ICCCs are playing important role in ensuring better monitoring and efficiency in areas like traffic management, solid waste management, water distribution management. Some of the ways ICCCs impact citizens’ lives are:

• Improved decision making for (local and other levels of) governments
• Improved environmental sustainability and climate change outcomes.
• Improved quality of services to citizens
• Safety of citizens
• Making cities more inclusive

But, the biggest contribution of ICCC surfaced during COVID or in Disaster Management, wherein they became the war rooms for decision making. Cities like Bengaluru, Vadodara, Thane, Vishakhapatnam, Bhubaneshwar, and Kakinada have deployed Disaster Management, Emergency Response, and Early Warning Systems to monitor water-logging, present and manage urban flooding, and coordinate disaster management activities.

Some efforts of Smart Cities during the current 2nd wave of COVID, are as below:

• ICCCs leveraged to monitor oxygen supply; increase bed capacity; video conferences with RWA

(Ex – Udaipur, Faridabad, Hubballi-Dharwad, Chennai, Belagavi)

• The technology used for accelerated Vaccination drives with community/NGO participation. Engaged with private hospitals for logistics management for patients (Ex – Mangaluru, Raipur, Bhopal)
• Created mobile application/dashboard, for locating the bed availability in city hospitals, drug distribution, with real-time COVID information, helplines, etc. (Ex – Nagpur, Tumakuru, Bangalore, Surat, Jabalpur)
• Home Isolation apps for patients, to interact with doctors. (Ex – Chennai, Raipur, Ahmedabad)
• COVID screening tests and vaccination for on-site construction workers and arranging their treatment (Ex –Madurai, Tirunelveli)

Do share any example that strikes you as particularly outstanding in the above.

Smart Cities Mission has already invested in ICCCs as the infrastructure backbone and decision support system for cities, which are using AI to drive urban transformation. Though there are many examples, two which come to mind are:

• BBMP ICCC war room: In light of Covid, Bengaluru city has established a Covid War Room as a Strategic War Room utilising data for planning, coordination, and monitoring of the crisis. The city is also exploring the use of an AI-based algorithm to predict the availability of hospital beds in the city and hotspot management.
• Kumbh Mela case: In 2019, the “Kumbh Mela Experiment” was set up in the city of Prayagraj to predict crowd behavior and the possibility of a stampede, using AI for the first time. The Kumbh Mela is the biggest religious gathering in the world and for it, over 1,000 CCTV cameras were used to monitor movements from the event’s location spread across 32 sq. km.

As on 7 February 2022, 6782 projects worth `1,89,312 crore (92% of total projects) have been tendered out of which 6,200 projects worth `1,64,593 crore (80% of total projects) have been work ordered. 3463 projects worth `58,841 crore (29% of total projects) have been completed.

The SPV model was a mechanism to expedite the procurements and implementations. What is your assessments of the Smart Procure model and how has it worked out so far

The SPV model in Smart Cities Mission was a part of its guidelines since its inception on 25 June 2015. It can be termed successful, as 6782 projects worth Rs. 1,89,312 crore (92% of total projects) have been tendered out of which 6,200 projects worth Rs. 1,64,593 crore (80% of total projects) have been working ordered. 3463 projects worth Rs. 58,841 crore (29% of total projects) have been completed.

What is the Open Data Model and how does it fit into the Smart City implementation

Smart Cities can be more effective when they are led by data-driven governance. The significance of data as the ‘Digital Capital’ is well established to create new avenues and enhance existing services for citizens through the ‘access or sharing economy’.

Towards enabling and operationalizing the above digital ecosystem in cities, the Smart Cities Mission has deployed a number of measures at the People, Process, and Platform levels. Working towards making our cities smarter, we have undertaken several programs and initiatives such as the DataSmart Cities Strategy and the National Urban Digital Mission that was launched last year to help cities unlock the potential of data.

We have also been investing in developing our platforms such as the Smart Cities Open Data Portal and India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) to propagate the use of data by cities. A dedicated and separate Open Government Data (OGD) Instance has been created by NIC for Smart Cities Mission and https://smartcities.data.gov.in portal was launched during the Second Apex Conference for Smart City CEOs.

The portal is designed to host open datasets of 100 Smart Cities of India and more than 2,600 datasets from 95 Smart Cities are already uploaded on the portal for free access to the public. This initiative is in line with the Open Government Data (OGD) Platform India (http://data.gov.in) developed by NIC as per the mandate given in the NDSAP Policy wherein Government departments are publishing their shareable datasets in an open format through this platform.

The Mission has further developed the National Urban Innovation Stack to unlock urban India’s innovation and growth potential.

We have been designing and developing a ‘City Innovation Exchange and SmartProcure’ platform to enable open innovation and solution driving in cities and gear the ecosystem for the entry of AI and other emerging technologies. There is an innovative model of procurement for Startups and Innovators through the SmartProcure guidelines issued by the Ministry.

Further, Smart Cities Mission is closely working with MeitY, NITI Aayog, and World Economic Forum on an operational strategy to deploy AI and other emerging technologies in Indian Smart Cities. These all initiatives are integral to the aspirations of Smart city augmentation.

What are your views about how the National Digital Urban Mission (NUDM) fits into the government’s overall AI roadmap — and how does this leverage deployment of data for the greater good.

With data as the capital, AI will become the new factor of production, can augment labor productivity and innovation while driving growth in at least three different ways:

• Mobilise intelligent automation;
• Empower existing workforces;
• Drive innovation.

With Impacts on these three areas, AI is expected to raise India’s annual growth rate by 1.3 percentage points in 2035. This amounts to an addition of US$957billion, or 15% of the current Gross Value Added. National Urban Digital Mission aspires in this direction, and trust me this aspiration has been catapulted in these challenging times of COVID.

As a mission, we are focussing on documenting an AI Implementation roadmap for Cities that can act as a playbook with iterative steps on the deployment of AI technologies in various sectors.

You have witnessed the implementations of different cities, among them the softer aspects like Access Friendly cities for the differently-abled and for Children. Do share some of your experiences on what is happening in this space

Apart from a huge variety of projects being implemented under Smart Cities Mission towards this, I wish to mention some relevant national challenges being run by Smart Cities Mission in this direction.

Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge - The Challenge was launched in the first week of November 2020. It is a 3-year initiative hosted by the Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA in collaboration with the Bernard van Leer Foundation and WRI India. The Challenge enables Indian cities to adopt an early childhood lens in designing neighborhood-level improvements that promote the health and well-being of young children and their caregivers. Through the Challenge, selected cities will receive technical assistance and capacity-building to improve public spaces, mobility, neighborhood planning, early childhood services, and data management. It is open for all Smart Cities, Capitals of States and UTs, and other cities with a population greater than 5 lakhs. A cohort of 25 cities was selected for further capacity building to implement actions under the Challenge. From these, 10 winners will be identified from evaluations taking place in October-November 2021.

India Cycles for Change (IC4C) Challenge - The India Cycles4Change Challenge launched in June 2020 is an initiative to inspire and support the cities to implement the cycling-friendly initiatives, to encourage cities to experiment with cycling and build confidence for a city-level scale-up with the goal to learn, rather than plan to perfection. The challenge will prepare cities to implement cycling-friendly initiatives in response to the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown. The challenge was open to all cities with over 5 lakh population, capital cities, and all smart cities. A total of 107 cities registered for the challenge. Participating cities undertook pilot projects, citizen surveys, and training in capacity-building workshops. The Challenge is conducted in two phases. The first phase, under which cities successfully implemented a pilot project, received proposals from 41 cities in January 2021. 25 cities were shortlisted out of which 11 were announced winners in July 2021. The second phase of the Challenge requires the 25 pioneer cities to scale up the pilot initiatives based on learnings from the first phase of the Challenge. The India Cycles4Change Challenge aims to create extensive cycling networks through low-cost interventions like pop-up cycle lanes and traffic-calmed or non-motorized zones.

Streets for People Challenge - The Streets for People Challenge, launched in September 2020, is an initiative to inspire cities to create walking-friendly streets through quick measures, in response to COVID-19. The Challenge will support cities across the country to develop a unified vision of streets for people in consultation with stakeholders and citizens. The Challenge requires each city to test at least one flagship walking project and enhance liveability in one neighborhood. Streets and public spaces around transit hubs, heritage zones, commercial streets, market areas, recreational corridors, or any high footfall zones can be considered as potential locations for the flagship project. For cities under the Smart Cities Mission, the interventions will be a pan-city initiative and not limited to the ABD area only. The Streets for People Challenge is open to all cities under the Smart Cities Mission, capital cities of States/UT’s, and cities with a population of over 5 lakh population. For the Smart Cities, the interventions are a pan-city initiative and not limited to the ABD area only. A total of 113 cities registered for the challenge. Participating cities undertook pilot projects, citizen surveys, and training in capacity-building workshops. The Challenge is conducted in two phases. 38 cities submitted their proposals towards Phase 1 of the Challenge in July 2021. 30 cities of these have been shortlisted and will be evaluated to identify winners for Phase 1 in October-November 2021.

Transport 4 All (T4All) Challenge - The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the Transport 4 All challenge in collaboration with ITDP on 15th April 2021. The Challenge aims to bring together cities, citizen groups, and startups to develop solutions that improve public transport to better serve the needs of all citizens.

At the core of the Challenge are citizens who will not only define the problems for which solutions shall be created but also help startups and cities to refine the solutions to meet their needs. The first edition of the Challenge focuses on digital innovation. Cities and startups will receive guidance to develop and test various solutions, learn from them, and scale them to build people’s trust in public transport and enhance their mobility. The solutions will make public transport—formal as well as informal— safe, convenient, and affordable for all. All the Smart Cities Mission cities, capitals of states and union territories (UTs), and all cities with a population of over 5 lakhs—are eligible for the Challenge.

The Transport4All through Digital Innovation Challenge comprises three stages:

• Stage I Problem Identification: Cities, with the support of NGOs, identify key recurring problems that citizens and public transport operators face
• Stage II Solution Generation: Startups develop prototypes of solutions to improve public transport with inputs from cities and NGOs
• Stage III Pilot Testing: Cities engage startups for large-scale pilots and refine the solutions based on citizen feedback

Cities, as part of the challenge, shall form a Transport4All Task Force (TTF) consisting of key stakeholders vis. Municipal Corporation, Smart City SPV, city bus undertaking, metro and suburban rail, regional transport office, traffic police, road owning agencies, Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) unions, NGOs, and academic institutes working in the field of sustainable transport. (www.transport4all.in). A total of 130 Cities (all 100 smart and 30 non-SCM cities) have registered for the Transport4All Challenge so far.

EatSmart Cities Challenge- On 15 April 2021, we launched the EatSmart Cities Challenge to scale up the Eat Right India approach to the city level. The Eat Smart Cities Challenge is envisioned as a competition among cities to recognize their efforts in adopting and scaling up various initiatives under Eat Right India by strengthening the food safety and regulatory environment, building awareness among the consumers, and urging them to make better food choices in India’s smart cities.

Globally, the concept of an ‘EatSmart City’ is in the initial stages of development and India has the opportunity to play a pioneering role in shifting the thinking around these critical issues.

EatSmart Cities challenge is meant to motivate cities to develop a plan that supports a healthy, safe, and sustainable food environment supported by institutional, physical, social, and economic infrastructure along with the application of smart solutions to combat food-related issues.

As a part of this challenge, cities will create a strategy aligned to the Eat Right India movement in consultation with stakeholders and citizens.

In closing, what do you think the 100 Smart Cities have generated as a learning platform for the next wave of implementations — with faster, smoother, and more efficient outcomes

100 Smart cities are lighthouses, which are going to trigger innovative and more citizen-centric urban development.

India is big, and its urbanization is going to be the backbone of its economic growth. To this end, a guidebook on ‘Making a City Smart- Learnings from the Smart Cities Mission’ encapsulates these learnings from the Smart Cities Mission.

It can help other cities understand the what, why, and how of embarking on the road to being a ‘smart city.

The outcomes of the Smart Cities Mission will be the star in this contribution.

Kapoor is Director, Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

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