‘Reviving lakes, bicycle sharing, sanitation’: Projects that won cities awards

The ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) on Friday announced the India Smart Cities Award Contest (ISAC) under the Smart Cities Mission (SCM), which felicitated 66 winners in various categories.

Of the 845 projects pitched by 80 smart cities, Indore stood out winning awards in six of the 12 categories in the competition as well as the ‘National Smart City Award’.

The awards would be presented by President Droupadi Murmu at a ceremony in Indore on September 27.

Indore got the top spot in the sanitation category for its Gobardhan bio-CNG plant. Another first in the urban environment category for its initiatives to improve air quality and develop Ahilya Van and vertical gardens.

The Saraswati and Kahn Lifeline project (SANKALP), the rainwater harvesting ‘water plus to water surplus’ project, and the efforts to rejuvenate lakes, wells and step wells were rated the best in the water category.

Three other projects from Indore — the riverfront development, value capture financing and multiple initiatives during the pandemic – were runner-up in the built environment, economy and Covid innovations categories.

“We have continuously redefined our role to try and build upon our existing projects and increase their value. Because of the successful implementation of our projects, we are the first city in the country to issue green bonds. We are also the first municipal body in Southeast Asia to trade in carbon credits. Even on the local scale, hundreds of our street food vendors benefitted when our flagship ‘Chappan Dukaan’ street was launched,” said Divyank Singh, chief executive officer of Indore Smart City.

Last edition of the awards, Indore and Surat jointly won the best smart cities title.

Leading with Indore, among the 66 winners in different categories, Madhya Pradesh bagged the best ‘State Award’ with winning projects from Bhopal, Jabalpur, Gwalior, and Sagar.

The second position for the state awards was taken by Tamil Nadu, followed by Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in the third spot.

Madhya Pradesh’s urban development and housing minister Bhupendra Singh credited the municipal agencies of the state for showing vision and commitment.

Chandigarh won the best ‘Union Territory’ award, with two projects being the highlight. The e-governance services portal provided 96 citizen-centric municipal services through a single window system with over 1,60,000 downloads.

The GIS-based system scrutinises the drawings based on Chandigarh’s zoning plans and facade controls, and 454 such drawings have already been approved. Under the Chandigarh Public Bicycle Sharing (PBS) system, 200 km of dedicated cycle infrastructure was created. The project has registered more than 400,000 rides by over 200,00 registered users in 17 months.

Standing first among the smart cities in UTs, Chandigarh also won awards for its e-governance, mobility, sanitation and promoting solar energy initiatives. Anindita Mitra, the municipal commissioner of Chandigarh and the CEO of Chandigarh Smart Cities Ltd, said pushing the bicycle-sharing project was easy but had challenges.

“Chandigarh has an inherent advantage of being a planned city. Also, it is a health-conscious city. But there were challenges... our cycles were vandalised. But now the city has taken to cycling. Our system sees 1,000 to 1,200 rides every day,” she said.

Coimbatore, which won the top spot in the built environment category, took up restoration and rejuvenation of lakes under its smart cities project.

Seven cascading lakes were rejuvenated along with lakefront development, including five amphitheatres, three food courts, numerous food kiosks, a learning centre, a smart-city experience centre, a sound-and-light show, boating and water sports.

“We have seven lakes built by the Chola dynasty. They used to serve as channels that carried water from the western ghats to the Kaveri. Over the years, this ecosystem was lost due to haphazard urbanisation, encroachments and dirty water flowing into these lakes. As part of Smart Cities Mission, we decided to revive them,” said M Prathap, the city’s municipal commissioner and managing director of Coimbatore Smart City Mission.

Prathap said the city also shifted about 10,000 households living by the lakes to affordable houses built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U). Moreover, sewage treatment plants were installed next to the lakes to ensure only clean water flows into them.

Coimbatore also reclaimed road space for its pedestrians. “We took roads in R S Puram and Race Course, which are in the city centre and built utility ducts – separate ones for drainage and utility cables. Half of the cleared-up space was given to the pedestrians. These stretches now see a daily footfall ranging from 5,000 to 10,000,” said the commissioner.

Other projects included Ahmedabad’s ‘revamping and upkeep of heritage structure and development of the heritage tourism using technology’.

Ahmedabad was declared India’s first heritage city by UNESCO. To create an immersive experience, the Ahmedabad Heritage App was developed by the Smart City, which included creative content cataloguing, customised tour planning, audio guides, automatic memory lane generation of videos, integration with social media and map-based services.

Since July 2018, using Ahmedabad’s ICCC, 30 lakh e-challans have been issued for red light violations, ₹17.74 crore collected for BRTS lane violations, and 130 zero-tolerance crossings are being developed.

At the Jabalpur incubation centre, 80 start-ups have graduated, and 39 startups are being incubated in different thrust areas. Vadodara’s Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) covers 34 UPHCs and 1000+ health workers/staff. Health data of 18 Lakh citizens was digitised within four months by assigning a Unique Health ID (UHID) number covering 82% of the city’s population. More than four Lakh families have been registered, and their health data is digitised.