SMART URBANIZATION

Confederation of Indian Economy (CII) organized a conference on “Smart Urbanization” at Hotel Leela Ambience, Gurgaon on 5th February, 2015. Prof. (Dr.) R.C. Sharma, Department of Applied Science & Humanities and Prof. Dinesh Vats, Department of Civil Engineering, Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon attended a conference.

The inaugural session was glorified by the presence of dignitaries Mr. Neeraj Munjal, Past Chairman CII, Haryana State Council & MD at Shivam Autotech Ltd., Mr. NSN Murty, Associate Director & Leader Smart Cities, Price Water House Coopers Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. Vikas Gupta, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation Gurgaon, Government of Haryana. Mr. B. B.Gupta, Director, JBM Group Chaired the session. The discussion sessions were devoted to the following topics:

1. Smart infrastructure: Building, Energy, Security, Healthcare, IT & Network Platform and Waste Management.

2. Framework for Smart Governance: Critical elements for successful project Implementation.

3. The Smart Mobility: Smooth and Sustainable Transportation Solutions.

Mr. T. L. Satyaprakash, Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon, Government of Haryana said that Smart Urbanization focusses on the key parameters like policy framework, the governance model and government – industry participation. Transportation, security and accessible healthcare facilities need to be priorities for smart urbanization. Cities needs to be benchmarked to create competitiveness that would lead to creation of smart cities. .

Mr. Vikas Gupta, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation Gurgaon, Government of Haryana discussed that Governance structure should change with the changing aspirations of citizens. The governance has to be made transparent and effective to drive smart urbanization into all regions of the state.

Mr. Neeraj Munjal, Past Chairman, CII Haryana State Council & Managing Director, Shivam Autotech Ltd. said that report on smart urbanization provides a roadmap to transform cities into smart cities in order to sustain urbanisation.

According to Mr. NSN Murty, Associate Director & Leader Smart Cities, Pricewaterhouse Coopers Pvt. Ltd. the CII - PwC report recommends a state level state taskforce to be formed to drive state smart city policy, planning and program implementation guidelines and a city level sub taskforce to drive the implementation based on localized problems.

Mr. Gaurang Pandya, Managing Director, Carrier Air - conditioning and Refrigeration Ltd. said that Smart cities have to be synonymous with the green cities. Centralized energy command centers can help in reducing the cost of energy consumption.

The conference had speakers from companies like Honeywell India, Tech Mahindra, Unitech Ltd, Bombardier Transportation, United Technologies Corporation, CRISIL Trans Metalite, SPML Infra, Morphogenesis, and Atkins.