Let’s also define a Dumb City

There’s a lot of buzz these days on Smart City initiative in India. With recent announcement of first list of 20 Smart cities, there is a lot of hope and expectation that we city dwellers will have a more delightful city life in years to come.

While a lot has been written about what a Smart City ought to be, no one has tried to list down the dumbness that exists across our cities in India. I thought let me list some of these just so that when SmartCity projects do get implemented, few of these get addressed:

Dumbness # 1: Significant working population of a city commutes more than half the city radial each day to reach their work location. On top of that, public transport is inadequate both in quality and frequency.

Dumbness # 2: City doesn’t know it’s energy demand across day, month and year. And it does nothing to cater to the energy deficit.

Dumbness # 3: City doesn’t keep any check on pollution levels, be it air, water or noise pollution. There are no means to measure these across the city.

Dumbness # 4: City doesn’t know where crime is happening. And police force is deployed with no view of crime pattern across days and seasons.

Dumbness # 5: Footpaths have been taken over by street hawkers. And so people have to walk on roads.

Dumbness # 6: Left lane of road across the city is piled with dust and garbage. And so, left road is not motorable at all.

Dumbness # 7: Traffic Volume across the city is not known. Traffic lights across the city are dumb and don’t adapt to traffic volume.

Dumbness # 8: Traffic offences are not penalized. People can easily drive on wrong side of the road, violate traffic signal and speed on roads. As a result, rowdy behavior is prevalent across city roads.

Dumbness # 9: There is seasonal water shortage in the city. Yet, no conservation measures such as rain water harvesting get enforced in the city.

Dumbness # 10: Garbage disposal across the city is broken. Garbage disposal is not tracked. There are not enough dumping grounds. No measures are in place to convert garbage to energy or manure.

Dumbness # 11: There are no rainy water drains along the roads of the city. Yet roads are being cemented. And if water drains do exist, they remain clogged even before the rains arrive.

Dumbness # 12: Vulnerable sections of the society, especially the elderly, women and children are not safe. And there are no measures to protect them either.

Dumbness # 13: Criminal movement is not tracked in the city.

Dumbness # 14: There are no road signs to guide commuters.

Dumbness # 15: Street lighting is poor. It’s still not LED and still not solar powered.

Dumbness # 16: City doesn’t have adequate number of schools and educational institutions. As a result, majority of kids travel out of city for education.

Dumbness # 17: City doesn’t have adequate number of hospitals.

Dumbness # 18: Emergency services such as Police, Fire Brigade and Ambulance can’t reach the needy on time.

Dumbness # 19: City first allows slums to develop in one place. And then they’re moved time and again.

Dumbness # 20: There is no platform by which residents can connect with the city to avail information, services or entertainment.

I’m certain there are many more dumb things we see around in our cities. My hope is that when Smart City projects do get implemented, these dumb things do get fixed as an outcome.