While most towns and cities are competing against each other to make to the list of 100 Smart Cities, CIDCO, Maharashtra’s town planning agency has the stage set to come up with the state’s first Smart City without any Central Government assistance. To be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 34,000 crores, CIDCO (City and Industrial Development Corporation of Mahrashtra) plans to fund the project through internal accruals and revenues from its several infrastructures including the Navi Mumbai International Airport.

“We are not taking assistance from anyone. CIDCO is generating its own resources to execute this project of Rs. 34,000 Crore. CIDCO has the necessary intelligence and capacity to generate funds for this project. The whole smart city project has been divided into 88 sub projects”, says Sanjay Bhatia, Managing Director of CIDCO. CIDCO already has Rs. 7,000 crore in its kitty, Bhatia added.

Under the Smart City initiative, seven nodes of Navi Mumbai-Dronagiri, Khargar, Kamothe, Kalamboli, Panvel, Taloja and Ulwe- will be developed. The project will be broadly divided in two parts —
Navi Mumbai (South) Smart City will be a brownfield project and Pushpak Nagar will be a green field project. These smart cities will be ready by 2019.

CIDCO has already initiated several crucial infrastructure projects other than the Navi Mumbai International Airport, like the expansion of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust expansion, Metro Rail ( Phase 1, 2, 3) and National Highway expansion plans. These are expected to bring in investments of about Rs. 50,000 crore to the region and will create 8.7 lacs jobs. CIDCO plans to tap this money for its ambitious project.

CIDCO’s Smart City will be based on ten major building blocks. Some of the key features that you will see in CIDCO’s Smart city project are as follows:

· Smart Organization– In which there will be complete organizational restructuring, specialized third party monitoring for all projects above Rs. 5 lacs etc

· Transparency and Ease of doing Business– E-governance will be given priority; several mobile apps will be developed in which you will be able to raise your grievances directly to CIDCO and get updates about water/traffic/power disruptions in real time etc.

· Environment Sustainability Projects– Smart city lightning, there will be air quality monitoring, a system to track water leakages etc

· Swatch Bharat– There will be centralized medical records for all patients, third party monitoring of garbage disposal etc

· Quality of Life– Area will be brought under CCTV surveillance, intelligent traffic management, and focus on infrastructure for recreational purposes etc

· Inclusive Planning– Affordable housing for EWS and LIG houses, redevelopment of dilapidated buildings, setting up of gender resource center etc

· Basic Infrastructure Development– construction of coastal roads, new dams, cycle tracks etc

· Transit Oriented Development– provisions to walk to work or find suitable public transport, smart parking, doubling Belapur-Panvel corridor.

CIDCO’s Smart City plans also include construction of 55,000 houses in the affordable segment. “We will also come up with affordable houses– we have plans of constructing 55,000 houses for the economically lower sections and low income groups”, Bhatia added.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devedra Fadnavis will launch the Smart City project on Friday.

Going by CIDCO’s past track record, where it has successfully developed Navi Mumbai region, it will be interesting to see how it fares in creating the “Smart City” on its own.

Ashwini Priolker, NDTV