Smart City a mission to improve quality of life, says expert

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 3

“India’s smart city project is a mission to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development and harnessing technology,” said Dr DS Mahesh Ram, a former Chief Town Planner in the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

Dr Ram, who is also the president of the Institute of Town Planners, India, while speaking at a workshop on “21st century smart cities’ organised by the Institute of Town Planners India, Punjab regional chapter, here today, said “The area-based development will transform the existing areas, including slums, into better planned ones, thereby, improving the livability of the whole city. The choice of the solution is only smart if it is right sized to challenge its aims to address.”

He said the mission was meant to set examples that could be replicated within and outside the smart city. He said “A smart city means different things to different people.”

Rajinder Sharma, a former chairman of the Punjab regional chapter, said conceptualisation of smart city varied from city to city, country to country.

Gurpreet Singh, chairman of the Punjab chapter, said government institutions, private & public sectors and real estate developers were doing their best to contribute to the mission. Prabhjit Singh Dhillon, secretary of the Punjab chapter, said in today’s workshop, issues such as conservation and transportation were discussed.