According to a recent report by Global Industry Analyst, the global smart city market accounted for USD 955.3 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach USD 2,700 billion globally by 2024 with a CAGR of around 16% between 2018 and 2024.
It is not only the accelerated growth and the resultant job creation/economic revival that is propelling smart cities development, it is also about enhancing quality of life of citizens through better infrastructure and connectedness.
The development model varies across countries according to their current phase of development. While developed nations have an advanced deployment of IoT in their smart city initiatives, India’s smart city market is still in a relatively nascent stage and revamping of its urban infrastructure is of prime significance.
Trends in India
Smart city development in India consists of three phase development comprising of city improvement, redevelopment and Greenfield expansions. A total of 100 smart cities in various states and union territories have been chosen for redevelopment over a period of five years. The government is collaborating with private partners to achieve this goal.
Here are few initiatives carried out by government agencies across India:
- Pune has completed several key projects including Intelligent Transport System, Bicycle sharing, Citizen Engagement, Street Re-design and CCTV security system.
- Surat has roped in private partners for the development of commercial complexes which are based on DBOT (design, build, operate, transfer) model.
- Bhubaneswar is targeting 30% of vehicular traffic predominantly comprising of electric vehicles in public transport by 2030 by adopting E-mobility through the introduction of electric buses, electric four wheeler and three-wheelers.
- Alappuzha (Alleppey) effectively performs recycling and reduction of household waste by its “clean home clean city” programme. This programme aims to establish Bio-gas plants and Pipe composting system.
- A Smart metering system has been introduced in the northern parts of Delhi to be spanned to rest of India by 2025, to monitor the usage of electricity by various appliances at home, at the click of a button.
- Delhi has started Integrated Multi-modal transport with an interlinked network of Metro rail, Bus Rapid Transit systems and proposed Monorailto lessen the congestion on the roads and enable seamless travel.
Global trends
Countries like United States, China and Canada are investing heavily in the digitalization of the education sector, whereas the transportation sector development is of prime focus in the European markets. The Latin American smart city development primarily aims at achieving technological superiority in the healthcare sector.
Some salient initiatives from around the world include:
- Leading the list is Singapore; the country has rolled out multiple smart city projects running across almost all the sectors from urban living, transport, healthcare to digitalisation of Government services. They have created an environment that is conducive for startups and businesses alike.
- South Korea has enabled its cities to work smarter using modern solutions. Their cities have Integrated operations control system to gather data and draw insights for taking pre-emptive steps for crime and disaster management.
- Amsterdam, Netherlands has implemented Smart street lighting that controls the brightness of the street lights and smart traffic management by drawing insights from real-time traffic data obtained by AI-powered devices.
- Barcelona governance has gifted its citizens with Free Wifi connectivity throughout the city to establish a digital environment.
- Vienna has been successful in reducing carbon emissions by about 30% since 2011 by adopting electric vehicles and utilizing various other renewable sources of energy.
While these are just a few examples, what is coming across is how technology has permeated every aspect of our life and gone on to make it better.