Let's make Delhi smart city

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on September 11 pitched for the industry's participation in making the national capital a 'smart city' while stressing that departmental procedures were being "simplified" by the AAP government to ensure "ease of doing business".

"We talk of smart cities. We talk of building 1,00, 200 smart cities. Let's make the nation's capital a smart city first. I invite you all to participate. the government will do its part with complete honesty," Kejriwal said at a Confederation of Indian Industry event on September 11.

As an example of efforts to make documentation and procedures simple and corruption-free, the CM informed that the Delhi government will soon introduce "self-attestation" and do away with the need of filing affidavits or getting various certificates attested from officials of a specific rank. He added that this measure would bring relief to the general public who have to go through a tedious process of getting birth, death or marriage certificates signed by officers of gazetted rank or MLAs.

"Let us believe in our people. You (people) give us affidavits and go for self-certification. You will see a complete paradigm shift in getting certificates in Delhi soon," Kejriwal said.

The AAP government's proposal in this regard, however, comes two months after the Center decided to do away with the need of filing affidavits from a gazetted officer or a notary for a big chunk of government-related work and promote self-attestation of documents instead.

Kejriwal also warned traders against tax evasion. "We have put an end to routine VAT raids. But the level of evasion is very high. In such cases, we will ensure punishment and make an example out of such people," he said.

To facilitate business in Delhi and prevent evasion of taxes, the Delhi government has decided to introduce a new online form-Delhi Sugam-2-with effect from September 15. This DS2 form has been introduced in place of T-2 form.

Source: PropertyatNeoDevelopers.Wordpress.Com

UK ready to help India build smart cities

British deputy high commissioner Andrew McAllister on Wednesday articulated his country's expression of interest to partner with India in realizing her vision of creating 100 smart cities.

Speaking at a round-table on 'Smart cities and inclusion' held here under the aegis of the British high commission, he expressed the UK's keen interest in key areas like sustainable energy, financial and professional services skills and urban smart cities.

McAllister asserted that the UK had pioneered in infrastructure innovation. "The London underground is more than 150 years old and yet it is still driving the heartbeat of the city of London well into the 21st century. Our strengths span into all aspects of design architecture and master planning to engineering consultancy, smart grids and project managements", he stated.

He further described the UK as a 'global leader' in digital technology and innovative financial solutions. The deputy high commissioner called for inclusion of the voiceless and the less privileged in the smart city and digital concepts. "In recent times, technology and knowhow have been great levellers. People are using ICT and social media to track, report and lobby on political issues. But how inclusive is it", he asked.

Krishna district collector Ahmed Babu said the district administration is planning to take up an initiative "Golden Mile project' on Mahatma Gandhi Road up to Benz Circle in the city as part of the smart city concept. Piped natural gas (PNG) has already become operational in Satyanarayanapuram area on a pilot project. Smart traffic concept would be introduced on the MG Road with facilities for parking of vehicles, citizen services and crime management.

Of 253 citizen services sought to be extended in the city under the smart city concept, 23 of them would be provided on the MG Road, the collector explained.

Source: PropertyatNeoDevelopers.Wordpress.Com

India needs to quickly familiarise with the smart cities concept

With the focus of the government on creating smart cities across India, developers have to be prepared for rapid transformation.

At this juncture when the government’s focus is to build smart cities across India, we are entering into an exciting and critical phase in real estate development where we have to redesign our built environment. The smart city has a capability to transform the lives of residents as they are efficiently managed cities which increase the quality of life. These automated systems help save time and energy and make life easy and cost-effective for the residents. For India, the smart city concept is relatively new. It will take time to really create these cities as this would require a large amount of capital, planning and latest technology.

For countries like India, the starting point of building smart cities can be development of the smart building concept in India. Large funding through private investors and those abroad and supporting government policies will drive the business case for smart buildings in India.

Currently, the perception is that smart building technology is expensive and unique but markets can transform in a very short amount of time, with smart buildings quickly going from being unique to being standard practice.

The advantage of following smart building concept is that they can be considered as future-proofed assets. A smart building is energy-efficient and an operationally effective building that integrates major building systems on a common platform and shares information and functionality between systems. They use clean energy and emit less carbon emissions and thus can be referred to as ‘future-proofed’ against changing government policies and shifting tenant demands as tenants increasingly understand the benefits of smart buildings. Tenants who understand the benefits of smart buildings may prefer them over competing conventional stock. Good smart building performance can also be seen as an indicator of building quality, and a commitment to good management practices. Buildings that are more attractive to tenants can also enjoy stronger tenant retention and shorter lease up and vacancy periods.

Moreover, reduced costs, efficiency in energy and water consumption can reduce outgoings, which can either be retained or used to incentivise tenants. Given that it can be difficult to change the design of a new building once development is advanced, it is important to be prepared for a rapidly changing market.

For developers in India, knowledge can be money. Generally, learning more about innovative products takes time and developer has to go through a familiarisation process. Those who will invest in learning quickly will comprehensively find that dealing with smart buildings becomes easy with time and that they can actually drive down the costs of doing so and increase their returns. The expertise and depth of experience of their design and development team will be instrumental in managing costs for developers. The technologies and design approaches of smart buildings and their ability to perform in operation have now been demonstrated in various locations around the world.

With the focus of the government on creating smart cities across India, the businesses have to be prepared for rapid transformation. The shift to smart buildings has only just begun, and will now accelerate very quickly with pro-active government support. It is the time for forward-thinking developers and landlords to prepare themselves to lead, rather than follow, the change.

Source: PropertyatNeoDevelopers.Wordpress.Com

12 smart cities to come up at ports with Rs. 50,000 cr investment

The Government is working on an ambitious plan to build one smart city each at the country’s 12 major ports, at an estimated total investment of Rs. 50,000 crore, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said.

“Each port will construct one smart city. We are trying to do this. Each city will be built with an expenditure of about Rs. 3,000-4,000 crore,” said the Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping.

“These will be green smart cities. We are starting work on these in four to six months. You will see all these complete in five years,” Gadkari told PTI in an interview.

The 12 major ports under the Centre’s control have between them an estimated 2.64 lakh acres of land, which is being mapped through satellites and are major resources with Shipping Ministry.

Mumbai Port Trust alone has about 753 hectares of land with it, valued at about Rs. 46,000 crore.

“We are identifying our property through GPS system. We do not want to sell land to builders and developers. We will develop these,” Gadkari said, adding that companies will be invited to construct houses there and private investment will be roped in.

Detailing the concept, he said these cities will be built in accordance with international standards and will have wide roads, green energy, advanced townships and greenery.

In addition, these smart cities and ports will have e-governance links, international standard facilities, special economic zones, ship-breaking and ship-building centres, besides allied things, he said.

“Port water will be recycled. Port wastes will be turned into bio gas. Vehicles will run on bio fuel. Solar energy and wind power will be generated at ports. These cities will be pollution-free and very green smart cities. We are starting these,” Gadkari said.

Besides, electric vehicles will run here and these smart cities would house schools, commercial complexes and other amenities, he added.

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State-level panels and city forums to realise smart cities

The Centre's ambitious smart cities project, apart from a state-level high-powered steering committee (HPSC), will have a city-level advisory forum for each of the 100 smart cities to enable people to actively participate in governance and reforms.

The city level forum, that will include NGOs, Chamber of Commerce, women groups, tax payers association will play an important role in the development aspects of these cities.

"Once the Smart Cities are selected through the 'City Challenge' competition, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be created for the implementation of the Smart City Mission in August," said an official from State Urban Development Department (UDD).

The official added that for every selected city, there will be a separate SPV. The SPV will be a company incorporated under the Companies Act and it will be have the responsibility to plan, appraise, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate Smart City Development projects.

"There will be a monitoring system at three levels," the official said, adding that at the national level, there will be an Apex Committee (AC) headed by the Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development department.

The AC will approve the proposals for Smart Cities mission and monitor their progress and release funds. While the state-level HPSC chaired by the Chief Secretary will have representatives of departments of state government, the Mayor of Municipal Commissioner of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) relating to the Smart City.

Principal Secretary of Finance and Planning, Principal Secretary or Director of Town Planning, representative of UDD, select CEO of SPV in the state, select Mayors or President of ULB, representative from Public Health will be the other members of the HPSC.

"At the City Level Advisory Forum, District Collector, MP, MLA, Mayor, CEO of SPV, local youths, technical experts will be the members. Apart from these, President of the Secretary representing Registered Residents Welfare Association, member from Tax Payers Association, Secretary of Slum Level Federation, women groups, Chamber of Commerce, Youth Associations and NGO will also be member of City level forum," the official said.

He said the Forum will play an important role in comprehensive development adding that the Smart Cities Mission requires smart people who can actively participate in governance and reforms.

Citizen involvement is much more than a ceremonial participation in governance, he said.

Meanwhile, Manisha Mhaiskar, principal secretary, UDD said, "the procedure to bring the proposals from potential cities is in process and we will select some names of the cities to recommend for city challenge to the union UD department within the next two weeks."

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Funding for smart cities to kick-start in January

The funding for select smart cities will kick in from January 2016, according to the Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Madhusudan Prasad.

States have been asked to complete the first stage exercises by July 31. "We will announce the 100 smart cities list by August 4," he added.

He was speaking at a press conference here on Saturday.

States will then be given three-four months to prepare proposals on the initiatives they wish to implement with respect to retrofitting, redevelopment, or construction.

By January, post-evaluation of the proposals, the list of around 20 cities will be announced and funding will be started.

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Indian School of Business prepares model for developing smart cities

With the government embarking on an ambitious urbanization programme, the Indian School of Business (ISB) has developed a framework to help cities assess and develop the prowess to become smart cities.

The 'Smart City Maturity Model' (SCMM) has been prepared to help Indian cities as well as states assess their progress and align their strategies in this regard, according to an ISB research paper.

To address the rising challenge of urbanisation, especially with increasing migration expected from the rural parts, the government is looking to develop at least 100 smart cities in coming years.

More than 600 million people would be living in urban areas by 2031, as per estimates.

Smart city is defined as one that leverages technology to integrate and optimise its resources towards better habitability, sustainability and citizen empowerment.

According to ISB, the framework would help a city or state to assess its technology readiness and subsequently align the resources and capabilities.

SCMM, which focuses on assessment and solution aspects, would help "a city or state assess the condition of its social, physical and technological development to identify its readiness for implementation of smart city solutions".

On the basis of social and physical infrastructure, the states in the country can be categorized into four clusters - development laggards, low moderate development, high moderate development and development leaders, the paper said.

The model has been developed by Deepa Mani, Assistant Professor and Joint Executive Director, along with Shankadeep Banerjee, Research Associate at the school's Srini Raju Center for IT and the Networked Economy.

ISB is a leading business school with campuses in Hyderabad and Mohali.

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Mission Smart Cities

Guidelines for Smart City project likely to be finalised soon

Gearing up to roll out its '100 smart cities' scheme across the country, the government is likely to finalise the guidelines for the Rs 48,000 crore mega project next week.

The NDA government's flagship project got Cabinet's approval last Wednesday, paving the way for the Ministry of Urban Development to work out details for the selection of cities for the project.

"The detailed guidelines of the project, aiming at recasting the urban landscape, is likely to be notified next  week after its finalisation," a senior ministry official said.

After the guidelines are announced, states and UTs will be asked to nominate names of cities for a city challenge competition and the chosen ones will get a central fund of Rs 100 crore each year for 5 years, he added.

The 'Smart City Challenge Competition' will be carried out by Bloomberg Philanthropes, which has been involved in conducting similar competitions in various countries.

According to the plan, 20 cities will be selected this year, followed by 40 each in the next two years.

"Smart City aspirants will be selected through the competition which intends to link financing with their ability to achieve the mission objectives," the official said.

"The cities will be given scores based on urban reforms that they have carried out, their impact and what they propose to do in four key areas - Swachh Bharat (sanitation), Make in India (ease of doing business), good governance (modern accounting system, rationalisation of property taxes) and e-governance," he added.

While most of the smart cities will be brownfield (old) ventures and will be implemented through an 'area-based' approach including retrofitting and redevelopment, the official said there will also be a few greenfield (new) projects which means setting up of new cities.

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Smart Cities Council of India to launch guide for urban planners

Smart Cities Council India, which has been formed to promote development of smart cities, will launch a guide to help urban planners understand the framework of smart city and take steps to improve city's infrastructure.

US-based Smart Cities Council, an industry coalition to advance smart city development and innovation, had reached agreement with Foundation of Infrastructure Research Studies Training President Pratap Padode to launch the India chapter.

The Indian chapter would recruit smart cities experts in the country to develop a 'Readiness Guide for India', the Council said in a statement.

The guide, which will have local case studies, would also enable city leaders and urban planners to understand the comprehensive framework of a smart city and take actionable steps toward major city infrastructure improvements.

"The first mission for Smart Cities Council India is to launch the Smart Cities Readiness Guide for India," Padode said.

Smart Cities Council India will catapult Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 100 smart cities programme onto the global stage, the statement said.

"India is the ideal location for a Smart Cities Council. We are proud to partner with entrepreneurs such as Pratap Padode along with Indian civil society, scientists and engineers to develop smart cities solutions," said Philip Bane, executive director of the Smart Cities Council.

Globally, Smart Cities Council advises on equipping cities with tools and knowledge to cope with expanding populations, shrinking budgets and aging infrastructure, the statement said.

Its goal is to accelerate the growth of smart cities worldwide by providing city leaders with best practices and vendor-neutral guidance on technology, finance, policy and, citizen engagement.

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Realty sector desperately needs organised funding

With the two most important agendas of the Narendra Modi government being Housing for All by 2022 and development of 100 Smart Cities, real estate stakeholders are expecting something exciting from the upcoming Budget 2015-16.

Om Chaudhary, founder & CEO of FIRE Capital, the first India-centric Real Estate Fund to be registered with Securities Exchange Board of India shares his expectations from the Budget.

Chaudhary says the first thing that should come to the sector is organised funding, as the developers are facing serious liquidity crunch at this point of time. He expects the finance minister to introduce some measures such as lowering the current interest rates to make this happen.

Granting 'industry' status:

Given the requirement for large quantum of funds and the long gestation period in the real estate development of projects (townships and large commercial/mixed use), the sector needs patience and low cost capital from banks and ECB (External Commercial Borrowings), if ‘industry’ status is to be granted to the real estate sector.

Real Estate Regulatory Bill:

The enforcement of the Regulatory Bill will ensure the formation of a Single Window Clearance mechanism. Through the Bill the government needs to make all stakeholders responsible and create a single window clearance mechanism at the state level for a time bound approval process. Chaudhary reinforces that once there is certainty and less scope for corruption and delays, organised capital will flow, especially Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

Regulations on REIT:

Chaudhary wishes the finance minister to sort out the tax/structuring issues and make the Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs) a reality, thus making investments in the real estate sector more organised for retail and institutional investors. This will ensure developers get the much needed liquidity.

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