With the Centre on Thursday naming three cities in Andhra Pradesh and two in Telangana in the list of 98 Smart Cities, the governments in both the States would now have to involve all stakeholders in each of the selected city to prepare “Collective Vision Document” that would reflect the aspirations of the people.
President of the Foundation for Futuristic Cities, Karuna Gopal, who was involved by the Union Urban Development Ministry in the preparation of the guidelines for Smart Cities, said authorities in each city — Greater Hyderabad, Greater Warangal in Telangana and Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh would have to initiate wide consultation with all stakeholders.
She said that the `Vision Document' would contain the views of the people on how they would like their city to get changed in the future. “That is the first step all cities would have to take. It is very important because people of a city have never been part of governance in the history of free India”, Ms. Karuna told The HIndu.
Observing that the vision document could not be prepared unilaterally by the city authorities, she said it was mandatory to involve stakeholders from all segments of the society in its preparation. Based on the ‘Vision Document’, each city would have to appoint a consultant to develop Smart City Plan. The Smart City Plan would deal with aspects like sector-wise development, financial investments and setting up of SPV.
How the future of a city would be shaped would depend entirely on the Vision Document and what the people articulate in it. Aspirations of people would vary from one city to another. For instance, people in one place might like to give predominance to preserving culture, relics and heritage in the document, while priority might be given to low-cost housing in another city.
Ms. Karuna said a Smart City was not about technology and investments. ‘Smart cities are all about liveability, sustainability and inclusion”, she added.
