Bolstering Nashik to a tech-empowered Smart City

Would you appraise us of the status of smart city projects happening under Nashik Smart City limited?

Nashik has been selected in the central government’s Smart City Mission mandate in the second round, and was ranked 11th among 27 cities, that were announced on 20th September, 2016. Our SPV, Nashik Municipal Smart City Development Corporation Limited (NMSCDCL) is formed on August 2016 and PMC (Project Management Consultant) been appointed on 5th July, 2017. The total worth of Nashik Smart City Project is Rs 2194.67 crores. The Government of India, allocated a fund amount of Rs 494 crores, of which the NMSCDCL has been able to utilize only Rs 38.15 Cr till date.

Out of 52 projects related to Smart City initiative in Nashik, several projects are in various stage of implementation. As of now the Nashik Smart City Projects are worth Rs 2614.27 crores, which are under implementation with funds from Smart City Funding, Public Private Partnership, CSR and convergence. A detailed table shared below shows the complete status of the Smart City projects in Nashik City.

What is the total funds allocated for smart city projects in Nashik? How are they utilised for various projects happening in the city, under smart city projects?

The Total funds to be received for each smart city is Rs 1000 Crores, of which the Central government shares 50%, state government shares 25% and the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) i.e. Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) shares 25% of the entire expense. Of this, of the allocation to be done by Rs 500 crores, of which, we received 196 crores from the Central Government, of the Rs 250 crores to be allocated by the State government, Rs 98 crores is received and for the Rs 250 crores to be allocated by Nashik Municipal Corporation, Rs 200 crores is been transferred.

Total utilization till October 2019 is Rs 38.15 Cr.

Q3:What are the key features or aspect of Nashik Smart City that keeps it ahead of its smart city counterparts across the nation?

Nashik has its deep roots connected with our history and is a very important pilgrimage town. In recent decades it has seen progressive development in field of economy and commerce, real estate, infrastructure, education and health sector.

Our inclusive development approach unites state of art infrastructure, Safe city with installation of approx. 400 cameras, its live feed in Integrated command and control center, SCADA project, improved mobility – non polluting public transport at neighborhoods (CNG and Electric bus, PBS project), rejuvenation of river Goda and riverfront development with state of art living – development new habitat township in Makhmalabad and Nashik sivar. 

Our vision is to “transform Nashik into an inclusive, vibrant city of opportunities with efficient urban services, sustainable growth and healthy living.

 What is your opinion about 5G data? How do you think will it change the way Indian smart cities function in the long run?

Smart cities initiatives are mostly based on the innovation and use of the digital technologies. Use of 5G data will help many important projects in Nashik Smart city that will require high speed data and these projects are Integrated command and control center where huge data from cameras and 52 services of NMC mobile application will be transferred and it must be uninterrupted. Similarly project like SCADA, Smart Parking, ITMS, Bus Services, all these projects are also having some component of data transfer. 5G can help get that data transfer fast and uninterrupted.  

What are the challenges you feel Nashik city has for building a smart city? How are you mitigating it? 

Cities geo-topographical condition

1. Boosting City economy and trade
2. City transport – life line
3. Citizens awareness and participation.

To meet the geo-topographical challenges, appropriate global technologies are researched and adopted in designing and developing the infrastructures and safety parameters by adopting smart and intelligent IT tools. 

For enhancement of economy and Commerce City wide connectivity with faster mobility is our primary focus, a robust public transportation infrastructure will bring about a modal shift from the use of personal transport to public transport which will be environment resilient, sustainable, efficient, safe and state of art.

More awareness program and platforms to be created and organized for citizen’s aware ness on all the envisaged-on development-oriented initiatives.

What strategies are you adopting to enhance citizen experience of Nashik Smart city further?

We under Nashik Smart city are in process of building Citizen Experience center where with the us of technology we will showcase the projects taken under this project. This again is the use of technology where the Ramayana circuit will be displaced with the use of VR (Virtual reality) technology along with use of other IOT technologies. 

Are you adopting any strategies for making Nashik Climate smart city?

Yes under smart city there is an initiative called “Climate smart cities assessment framework” where creation of data base to make cities climate resilience is important. We are also adoption projects like reuse of Construction and demolition waste, solid waste management, so that there is less damage to environment. Use of public bicycle sharing, proper parking spaces will reduce the pollution levels in the city. Desilting will help increase the capacity of the river, SCADA will help tap the major leakages in feeder lines, and use of cameras will help reduce the crimes in the city with proper vigilance. 

Livability Index of Nashik