Page 18 - DIGITAL ISSUE MAY 2018

COVER STORY Powered by
SMART CITIES To revitalize urban public spaces and socially activating the area According to Water and environment management solutions

beside generating economic activity, Jaipur Smart City Ltd (JSCL) company, Ion Exchange (India) Ltd, more than 7,000 tonnes
of waste is generated each day in large metros such as Mumbai
has planned to develop heritage walks, an eco-friendly corridor as
well as a night bazaar at Chaura Rasta, in the heart of the Pink city. and Delhi. Recently the company commissioned the country's
e JSCL would register up to 700 vendors who will be allowed to rst Andicos Waste to Energy system at Akshaya Patra, a fully-
set up stalls, including eateries, between 9 pm and 1 am. e project
and organic waste. Andicos, a joint initiative of Ion Exchange with
will provide entertainment, culture, and shopping to citizens a er
o ce hours. automated community kitchen near Hyderabad to treat wastewater
Belgium-headquartered VITO and Europem provides an integrated
In Aligarh, e orts are on to promote the traditional lock industry waste-to-energy solution through the bio-methanation process.
with a plan to promote the sale of their products in the global While the treated raw sewage is transformed into puri ed water that
market. Come January 2019, Allahabad would soon be able to can be reused, the sludge generated in the process is then combined
boast of facilities like intelligent tra c signals (ITS), pan tilt with organic kitchen waste generated in homes and communities
zoom (PTZ) cameras, crowd management analytic and automatic to produce renewable energy and organic fertilizer. e `7-crore
number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, a smart parking system, plant has been set up by Ion Exchange at Panaji and Rajkot too
environmental sensors and an e cient solid waste management have taken impressive steps to improve their waste management
system o ered under the Smart City project to welcome visitors practices. Panaji, in fact, aims to be a land ll-free city.
during the Kumbh fair. e district authorities are working to Diu Smart City has become the rst city in India, that runs on 100
set up an Integrated Command & Control Centre (ICCC) at the percent renewable energy during the day. Till last year, the city had
Allahabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) with an objective to been more than 70 percent of its power from Gujarat. 9 MW solar
o er better services to Kumbh pilgrims. park spread over 50 hectares rocky barren land and installation of
While Naya Raipur is positioning itself as both a hi-tech State solar panels on the roo ops on 79 government buildings is now
capital, but also an adventure sports destination. e four kms generating 1.3 MW annually. To further enhance its solar capacity,
cycling track, Kayaking, Burma bridge, boating facility and a 2 kms Diu is now o ering residents a subsidy of `10, 000-50,000 for
skating track are some of the facilities already functional in the new installing 1-5KW roo op solar panels. Due to low-cost solar energy,
capital city and a Jungle Safari comprising of four separate Safaris power tari s have been cut in the residential category by 10 percent
is in the works. e state government has also earmarked 258.48 last year and 15 per cent this year.
hectares of land in the capital for setting up a ‘Nature Resort’ and Rajasthan has so far been the pioneer in implementing LED lighting
a ‘ eme Park’. projects. In Ajmer, all the lights have been replaced with advanced
LED lights, helping the city save amount to the tune of 40 percent.
Applying Smart Solutions to infrastructure and services in area- Dharamshala is also news for installing "India's rst city-wide
based development in order to make them better. sensor-based underground waste bin network". The system is
Aligarh has developed and deployed a low cost, non-energy based on the principles of segregation at source, waste to value, zero
demanding, eco-friendly solution for treating its waste. The land ll and community ownership.
research and development project was commissioned in 2013 as
part of a bilateral agreement between the Government of India and CONCLUSION
European Commission. Professor Nadeem Khalil, Urban Specialist, With a host of new ideas now on the ground, what remains to be
Aligarh, says, “ e e uent is of very high quality —like the seen is how well and how long are we able to sustain them. For
wastewater from drains, nullahs of peri-urban areas of the city can the major challenge now confronting is not only how much we
be reused in the construction, irrigation, gardening, horticulture, are growing, but how are we growing. And this challenge can be
etc. We have already used this technology for one of the project met only when policy makers, government, business, research &
Swings —Safeguarding Water Resources in India with green and academia and local citizens join together to ideate new solutions in
sustainable technologies. Even the Namami Gange programme has urban design. e choices we make now will sustain our cities and
adopted this technology.” our way of life well into the future.

20 CONSTRUCTION OPPORTUNITIES|MAY 2018