Smart City
Mere Sapno ka Shahar
By Debkumar Bhadra
| Musings of an Islander | South Andaman
Taking 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 e-Governance 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 post-project 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 however is not
the only one, but the latest one in the stretch of road from Chakkargaon to Brookshabad. Earlier
duuring 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 road transport
services
Given the undulating
topology of the city where 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.
Concerned 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 up while commuting
need of the city is 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.
This post was carried in the Port Blair edition of Echo of India dated 10 Nov, 2015
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