The technology for smart city already exists, the problem lies in the development of policies that will facilitate the adoption of technology for better management of city life.
A smart city can mean almost anything, so when there is talk of developing 100 smart cities, you can be sure about the degree of smartness in city life that is being contemplated. The smart city rhetoric paints the picture of ultra-modern hubs where digital technologies are deployed for the efficient management of everything from roads and water to waste and electricity.
Despite building new metro lines, flyovers, BRT corridors and subways, the traffic gridlock in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and other metros continues to get worse. With the number of cars on the road on the rise, perhaps it is time to implement smart technologies for better traffic management magnetic sensors to monitor the traffic flow, synchronised traffic lights, cameras on every road and centralised computer system to make the traffic flow smooth.
The technology for smart city is already there, but a smart city signifies a disruptive change in the way city operations are managed and how we live and work. The traditional systems are so deeply entrenched that it is difficult to implement the smart systems for better management of city life.
Most of the 100 smart cities that are being planned will be greenfield projects, and currently they are not even at the planning stage. Essentially they are nothing more than a floating abstraction. Even, if land can be found for these smart cities, they will take decades to come up. What do those smart cities, which in the lexicon of techno-fl?eurs sound like hi-tech panopticons, mean for ordinary citizens who live in the metros that are anything but smart.
There is one way by which we will eventually make a natural progress towards smart cities. The ever growing web of connected technology Internet of Things promises to put most cities and towns on the fast-track to being ?mart,by getting all sectors or things that have till now been working independently to talk to each other and work together. But for IoT to take root in the city administration, the government will have to create enough room for the technologies and standards to evolve and get implemented.
With IoT round the corner, the city governance and urban living can be as connected as the functions on your smartphone, but for that the system of governance has to change.
