Jaipur starts early in a bid to become smart city

Pink City Jaipur is preparing the ground to qualify as a 'smart city' as the race to identify 100 Indian smart cities hots up. The Central Government had announced a city challenge programme to pick the 100 smart cities, and state governments have been lobbying to showcase their cities.

The Jaipur Development Authority on Wednesday said it has gone live with four smart projects in a few city areas. These include wi-fi services in areas such as the 25-hectare Central Park, city information kiosks that will be a boon to the 40 million tourists who visit the city every year, environmental monitoring sensors, and networked surveillance as well as analytics.

Shikhar Agrawal, Jaipur Development Commissioner, said that an RFP for a smart city consultant has been floated and a master plan for the entire city should be ready in the coming months. American firm Cisco was the technology advisors for the current projects and also advised with global best practices. There are some synergies between Jaipur and European cities such as Barcelona, that the company has consulted-the influx of a large number of tourists being one of them.  

"We have started this now so that we are better placed when the union government picks its 100 smart cities," Agrawal said. The city, he says, aspires to do everything that defines a smart city today, including building a central command and control centre that integrates all city services.

Business Today had earlier reported that the Union Government's selection process will take into consideration a city's existing infrastructure and civic facilities. The city under consideration must also have a vision of its own. Other aspects that will be assessed include existing information and grievance redressal mechanisms, functioning of its municipal corporation, and the progress made under the Swachh Bharat Mission.