Smart city initiative faces challenges in India

Hyderabad: Investments towards the making of smart cities has been approved to the tune of $1,91,155 crore, but only a trickle of the fund approved has been utilized for the purpose, due to which criticism from various sectors for not utilizing them has been heard, said Pratap Padode, Founder, Smart Cities Council India during the announcement for the upcoming 5th Smart Cities Summit, to be held in the city.
 
The council estimates a 15-year timeline to convert a city into smart and smart city initiative has been facing challenges from sectors like managing with old and available technology, charge or duty related distribution to the public and private bodies and a gap in the communication at the municipal level. 
He added, “In India, the smart city concept and implementation of projects is happening in bits and pieces, a part of the city is being developed to be smart on priority basis of the requirement. 

It is easy and fast to make a city smart with population of nearly three lakh.”  The summit termed as Smart Urbanation is going to be a platform for government and private stakeholders to connect and derive decisions for outlining projects towards making the city smart. 

The summit to be held on March 22 and 23, will see participation from more than 50 industry speakers, nearly 1500 delegates from India and abroad along with 40 startups who would be demonstrating solutions to achieve the governments vision.  

Goutham Reddy, Vice Chairman, Ramky Group, felt that the government should focus on solid waste management and housing to convert Hyderabad into a smart city.