Cities cannot build overnight. It takes two generations to fulfill the dreams of new cities. Indian urbanization is passing through the phase of subaltern growth. Government should focus on the issue of providing infrastructure to the existing towns.

The smart city, a 100 of which the NDA government has planned, is a utopian concept that excludes completely the urban poor and promises infrastructure systems to control urban living and that has the capitalist rather than the state as the custodian of citizens.

Keeping out the poor
Let us look at the under-construction Lavasa, a megalopolis of five planned cities, being built near Pune. Constructed on 10,000 hectares of purchased land, this artificial city is being developed by Hindustan Construction Company (HCC). One of its townships, Dasve, is modelled on the Italian Portofino and boasts world-class facilities. Lavasa seems like an island of affluence in the middle of an India that is struggling to put together two meals a day. For a majority of Indians who can never afford the “smartness” of Lavasa, it appears like a dystopia come true.
In 2010, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests ordered a stay on further construction in lieu of violations of environmental norms. In November 2011, the order was rescinded.
There are still 18 villages inside Lavasa whose residents have not sold their land, but the management says it does not intend to remove them and promises coexistence. When the project first began, some farmers sold off an acre for as low as Rs.5,000 (one acre equals 0.4 hectare). 

A former employee, on condition of anonymity, says that while it is the responsibility of the state to take care of its citizens, and people can demand their rights from a government and hope for redress of their problems, a capitalist system is under no obligation to uplift the people. Here is a situation where the capitalist has replaced the states as the custodian of the citizens.

While many have bought property in Lavasa, very few have actually migrated there, as facilities remain incomplete. According to the former employee, most of these people are well-heeled and count among the who’s who of the country, including film stars, cricketers, bank chairpersons and bureaucrats.

Jobs for the local people have pulled some of them out of poverty, but opportunities remain limited and mainly for the purposes of serving the rich inhabitants. Some of them are construction labour but stay in labour colonies, away from the rich residents. Petty shop and contract work are other options. This form of segregation in the social re-engineering of habitats is discrimination in a capitalist setting. This violates the very norms on which Lavasa has been built: those of new urbanism, where everybody from pedestrians to common inhabitants have equal rights. But in practice, buffaloes of the nomadic Koli, Dhangar tribes are not allowed to roam freely inside, according to the former employee.

That brings us to the question, who are these cities built for? Are we moving towards a paradigm where only the affluent have a right to better lives and citizenship in smart cities, and are regulated cities in the hands of corporates socially or economically plural? While major Indian festivals are celebrated with pomp inside Lavasa, festivals and culture of the indigenous people are slowly fading away. What is the kind of political amalgamation or cultural fabric that is being created? Organic cities have histories, people feel a sense of belonging, they have stories to share. By contrast, the new cities levitate in a plastic culture with colourless perfection. In view of Lavasa’s initial public offering and draft red herring prospectus, HCC chose not to respond to Frontline’s questions.

Are smart cities really important? The project’s aim is “housing for all,” and that is possible only through affordable housing. Much like other developing nations, India has high levels of rural-urban migration – the country is expected to have an urban population of 530 million by 2030, up from 390 million in 2008. Given the fast pace of development, better living standards are being sought by those with lower incomes, and a new middle class is emerging. Official data show that approximately 269 million people in India are still below the poverty line, but millions are moving out of poverty every year. It is for this rising class that the need for better living standards arises. To accommodate this growing and increasingly mobile populace, it is imperative that a sustainable model of housing be developed. But are smart cities the answer? Certainly, in theory the idea sounds very appealing. In practice, it is much less certain and the answer won’t be known until India actually builds some. India has already taken serious steps to turn certain cities into smart cities. International assistance has been sought from Singapore and Japan, among others. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between India and Japan to develop Varanasi into a smart city based on the experience of its Japanese counterpart – Kyoto.

It will be important to see what India is getting into, rather than becoming overwhelmed with the idea. The smart city concept implies an oversimplified vision of technology. It is based on the belief that technology can solve any problem without fundamentally changing lifestyles. However, can India’s problems actually be simplified to the point that they can be controlled by a large set of data points? Does this mean that the current problems are not social, but technological? Given a country as diverse as India, can the heterogeneity of its cities be accommodated in a linear vision backed by technology? These questions will be worth considering as the project proceeds. The concept, though, is immensely appealing: India is truly considered a symbol of “unity in diversity,” and this time the unity can be brought under the surmounting umbrella of technology.

confuzzled dude wrote:Indian govt. is making a big push to build smart cities but can it accomplish its goals in a reasonable time? Main requirements for building these smart cities are 24x7 water & electricity supply, infrastructure (which have been the achilles heel for manufacturing sector's growth) along with proper facilities to recycle & conserve natural resources like water; given 400 million Indians still don't have access to electricity and drinking water, can this be feasible. The first smart city project initiated by Gujarat in '07 still hasn't come to fruition tells us that these hurdles are too steep to overcome. Let's hope Modiji is sincere about these promises and this was not just another ploy to garner votes.

Seva Lamberdar wrote:
The problem about the lack of infrastructure etc. in India is due to the politicians and their cronies in the past scamming and squandering most of the money intended / allocated for development. Modi thus has to start from almost at the bottom to improve things in the country (including in his own home state Gujarat).  Here is something related to this in the following from one of my blogs 5 yrs. ago.