Citizen engagement is our priority in Pune’s Smart City project, says Prerna Deshbhratar

As the Pune Smart City Development Corporation Ltd (PSCDCL) gears up for the deadline to showcase their finished projects under the smart city mission, Hindustan Times caught up with Prerana Deshbhratar, CEO PSCDCL and additional municipal commissioner, who shared details of the ongoing projects and what else is in store for the city. 

“Pune is a dynamic city and the government of India officials are pleased with our work so far and are expecting more from us. During the review meeting of the smart city with Durga Shanker Mishra, secretary, ministry of urban development recently, they want more visible changes in the city. This project will enrich people’s lives and the secretary said that the government is ambitious when it comes to Pune,” she explained. Besides, Pune is already leading in the status of number of projects as compared to other cities, she added. 

Citizen engagement is the number one priority on our list and we set up our projects only after several deliberations with the residents of this city. What came across on top of everyone’s list were water and transport and accordingly we prioritised our projects, thus, the first project was 24x7 water supply followed by the pilot street design project in Aundh, she said. 

Initially, we had planned 52 projects but later, we segregated it into 31 basket projects, small projects which could be done together, said Deshbhratar.

The very structure of this project is very different, it compels you to think differently. This programme looks at two components –pan city and local areas, hence, we are looking at the whole picture when it comes to a city’s development. 

Under pan city, we have smart elements like Wifi in the city, emergency buttons at all junctions, mass address systems, smart street lighting system, which we are about to complete in a few months where we have replaced 40,000 lights to LED thus, leading to 50% to 60% energy savings. Place making and pilot street design project are to be cultural models, which will be available for scaling up and recreating in other parts of the city.

The total duration of the project is five years with ₹3,000 crore as the budget. Government of India will give ₹500 crore, the Pune Municipal Corporation and the government of Maharashtra will give ₹250 crore each, thus, the PSCDCL will have ₹1,000 crore in it’s kitty for the smart city project. 

As of now, the project has received ₹200 crore from the government of India, ₹93 crore from the government of Maharashtra and ₹100 crore from the PMC, out of which they have spent ₹40 crore till date.