PANAJI: City planners and architects, on Saturday, said that their participation in the smart city project is unavoidable. The planners, speaking at the conference on ‘Smart Cities Opportunities and Challenges,’ organised by Institute of Town Planners India (Goa Chapter) in the city, said that the integration of technology and design should be made simpler and less expensive, which is a challenge.
They opined that collaboration amongst professional planners and institutions should be a part of the city designing process to take up the challenges.
Addressing the gathering, Milind Ramani, an architect and urban planner, said that “since the launch of Smart Cities Mission, everything has been termed as smart – smart transportation, smart buildings, but all the innovations have opportunities and risks. Technology as the main driver of the smart city concept renders the role of the urban planner superfluous. Technology should be used only as a tool to monitor urban services and not considered as the only solution.”
He further highlighted the importance of involving citizens, professionals, city planners and governing agencies in the smart city project for wider acceptability and transparency.
Speaking at the meet, Panaji MLA Sidharth Kunkalienkar said that people migrating to cities require comfortable and affordable housing, mobility systems, clean air, sanitation and access to other urban services.
“Since such services are not affordable in the city where most jobs are located, people are forced to find housing in cheaper outskirts, leading to sprawling of cities and lack of access to comfortable modes of transport,” he added.
He said that rather than just withholding ideas, the city planners and architects should suggest ways to implement the smart city concept.
“There are so many challenges that we have to overcome. Lack of basic amenities, disconnect between the state authorities and the communities as well as inefficient use of resources need to be addressed. The smart city scheme treats every city as a living laboratory for experimentation,” said Mangesh Prabhugaonkar, chairman of IIA.
While making a presentation on disaster from unplanned development, Prabhugaonkar said that “from the urban design and planning point of view, there is a need to understand the existing planning and architectural typology rather than superimposing technology on city infrastructure, and without having such an approach, the government will not be able to elevate infrastructure and opportunities for all classes.”
Speaking on the important pillars for smart cities, the chief town planner Dr S T Putturaju said that “the concepts are essential pre-requisites for making cities smart. Strong and effective governance is required to make these plans a success.”