India and USA Relationship on Smart Cities, Comment
USA has offered to help and aid India in developing three Smart cities—Ajmer in Rajasthan, Ahmedabad in Gujrat and Allahabad in UP. The nature and quantity of aid and help is yet to be determined. The Report of a team of experts in infrastructure etc. can, after visiting some cities of Japan, China and USA could form the basis of the development of smart cities as proposed. I don't think we need any foreign consultancy in this matter. The smart cities should meet our own requirements.
Imaginative modification, extension and resiting of some of our existing facilities, like parks, museums, stadiums etc. will have to be done AND that will need a lot of money. But much much more money will be needed for developing new Facilities like Water Parks, Sports Complexes, Zoos, Camping sites Etc. Good quality multi-lane and, as far as possible signal-free, roads will have to be provided. And on these roads, there will have to be provided flyovers, skywalks and underpasses at selected points, for free flow of traffic and free movement of people. The saving of fuel, the decreased wear and tear of machinery and tyres etc. can affect appreciable economy in our budget.
In addition, Cycle-tracks for encouraging people to use non-motored means of transport will be of immense value. The use of cycles on cycle-tracks will lighten the load of traffic on roads which, in turn, will bring down the number of accidents and of the casualties the accidents cause. Consequently, the environmental pollution will be less. We can be among the leaders global-warming controllers. Cycling and walking are healthy exercises. These exercises make a nation healthy. As healthy people need nominal health-care, the amount, of health-care thus saved, can be utilized for improving the health-care education and the provision of health-care facilities and services. When we excel in providing health-care and health education we will, attract larger number of health-seekers and students which will be our financial gain too. Healthy people are generally happy and the share their happiness and spread. Happiness permeates their work culture. They enjoy their work. Healthy and happy people make patriotic Nationalists and global citizens. Each one of the happy people can be relied upon to work as an ambassador of his country. As an essential part of the infrastructure, the existing roads will have to be widened and new roads will have to be constructed; all of them of high quality multilane and signal-free, as mentioned earlier the need of metros in these cities cannot be over-emphasized. Financial aid, loan or our own resources; all this will be difficult. But we will manage. But the government will have to face following tough challenges:-
- Acquisition of land for some important projects.
- Recovery of land from land-grabbers.
- Clearance of planned routes for widening of roads.
Our administration is lethargic, corrupt, and spineless. The govt. will have to take some harsh steps rid it of the weeds in its setup and the retrain as well as firmly handle the dark elements to government these cities and the rest of India as well.
As these cities are going to be the path-breakers and SHOW-WINDOWS, these will have to be provided- Global rail, road and communication facility.
Generally, the poor and the down-trodden have to pay an extra-high price for development. I hope Modi downs the Industry-Business-Babu-Politician MONSTER and makes development all-inclusive.
These monsters haven't allowed the Govt. to recover its own land; road-widening is going to be an extremely difficult exercise.
Our corrupt and spineless administration will have to be purged of the corrupt, criminal and spineless elements and, then, retrained and handled effectively, so as to be able to provide good governance which is the essential requirement of a smart city.
Sukhlal Rana
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