TIRUPATI: While the popular belief on smart cities is all about transforming huts into skyscrapers, or narrow lanes into highways, it is actually about creating an environment congenial to ensure the overall well-being of people.
At a session on ‘Smart Cities’ at the 104th Indian Science Congress, noted city planner and designer Vishal Kundra explained the concept of smart cities, evolved from the gap identified between public expectation and current status in meeting people’s needs.
Mr. Kundra was the consultant behind successful selection of smart city proposals of Tirupati, Visakhapatnam, Chandigarh, and Ludhiana.
The 1900 census put urban population at 11.4 per cent, which rose to 31 per cent in 2011. It is pegged at 40 per cent in 2030. Unfortunately, the sub-continent’s most polluted cities — Delhi, Patna, Gwalior, and Raipur — are in India.
Mr. Kundra also referred to the gross mismatch between civic resources and growing citizen requirements, thanks to the ever-increasing migration to the cities.
“Even new cities such as Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar, Raipur, and Gandhinagar are under pressure today,” he said.
While focussing mainly on making a city liveable, disabled and elderly-friendly, and replete with open space, he also stressed the need to retain lakes, ponds, forests, and hills around a city.
Mr. Kundra said that Tirupati’s image as an international spiritual centre and its tourism-based economy would ensure its sustenance in future, apart from factoring in positive images on the educational and culinary fronts.
V. Vinaychand, Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Tirupati, was present.
