Smart Cities Should Have Smart Timings

To successfully build smart cities, a country must have three basic citizen-centric services, which include smart governance, smart mobility, and smart health. These are the necessary verticals that complete the Smart Cities Mission. Without any one of these, it is practically impossible to call a city 'Smart'.
 
A panel comprising of Amit Wadhwani, Director of Sai Estate Consultants; Awadhesh Sharma, CEO, Ujjain Smart City; Rachna Yaduvanshi, Add. Regional Transport Officer, Department of Transport, and Syam Adusumili, VP & Head Sales and Solutions for Optum, broadly focused on these three very different yet inter-connected parameters at the 5th edition of BW Smart Cities Conclave & Awards 2017.

Awadhesh Sharma took up the challenge to administer and transform one of the holiest places in India, i.e., Ujjain which is into as a smart city. "The immediate need at the government level is convergence. For turning Ujjain into a smart city we have made a robust underground solid waste management program.  The underground waste management program is such a project that nobody wants to get his hands dirty with.  The holy places such as Mahakaleshwar Mandir require a holistic approach as devotees and tourists visit such places only once in a year or even once in a lifetime." It explains how important is to develop cities like Ujjain into a smart city in terms of healthcare and citizen engagement.

With the emergence of IT into the healthcare sector, which ensures health facilities to reach out to the people on the timely basis.

Focusing on another highly important issue for building smart cities, Amit Wadhwani talked about smart timing. A topic of high importance yet it often gets left behind in India. "As Indian consumers, we are very much aware of timelines. When a smart city is planned, therein goes a lot of planning; from the public as well as private sector. However, we witness delayed of many years when it comes to building a smart city. A lot of private players like developers, infrastructure players, and PwD contractors should also be attentive to the fact that the smart city planning and its projects are profitable for them. If they are getting something out of the projects without any delay, then only there could be a happy consumer and successfully built Smart City, " said Wadhwani.