Smart Cities Coming Up To Make Delhi Smarter

It will be a happy, new Delhi in 2015. In the next few months, work will begin on three smart cities, with 20 lakh flats built in an organised urban set-up equipped with all amenities and guided by technology.

To come up on the Capital’s outskirts — extension of Dwarka in southwest Delhi, Rohini and Narela in the northwest — these cities will be modeled after the group housing concept, with uninterrupted power, water and wi-fi connectivity.

Hospitals, schools, commercial complexes, green spaces and energy-efficient structures would be the other features.

There are four zones in the city which will be developed on the concept of smart cities. These cities would have world-class infrastructure and facilities. 

Smart cities are Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project, an ambitious plan to set up 100 such urban settlements across the country. He promised them while campaigning for the Lok Sabha and sees them a step towards improving governance.

In Delhi, private developers will build the cities and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) infrastructure. These will come up on 20,000-24,000 hectares — simply put, each new sub-city will be the size of Dwarka.

The cities will scale new heights. Norms have been modified to allow residential blocks to rise as high as 24 floors, sources said. At present, apartment blocks can only go up to 12 floors.

Regulations of land polling had been approved by the DDA and the Delhi government had already initiated the exercise of changing the land use from rural to urban, sources said. The regulations have been sent to the urban development ministry and once they are approved, work will begin.

Locals/developers would offer land parcels, and the DDA would create basic infrastructure, officials said. The DDA would then handover the land to developers responsible for providing residential and commercial complexes, hospitals, schools, parking lots and green spaces, officials said.

A smart city is a self-sustainable unit relying more on renewable energy with integration of green spaces, residential and commercial areas, connected through a web of roads. Emphasis is also on minimising waste by increasing energy efficiency and reducing water conservation.

“We are going to appoint a consultant to provide ICT (information and communication technology)-enabled services in the entire process till the occupancy certificate is given to individual applicants,” a senior official said.