GIFT City has pioneered the ‘smart cities’ movement in India. To continue its status as torchbearer of ‘Indian Smart Cities’ and bring in innovations relevant to Indian context, GIFT will be participating in the 100 smart cities challenge. Through a consultative process which entailed feedback from citizens, businesses, academicians, and NGOs – GIFT City has established the following vision:
GIFT City - A gateway to 'New India'. An emerging global destination that is India's first international financial services centre and multi-service special economic zone which embodies citizen delight through its vibrant socio-economic environment, world class infrastructure at affordable costs, and pre-emptive governance.
The focus areas identified by GIFT to achieve the vision are:
• Capitalize on IFSC and service sector to create jobs and establish India in global financial services landscape
• Create social infrastructure to ensure citizen delight
• Continue as a torchbearer of engineering innovation in physical infrastructure for “Indian Smart City”
• Achieve excellence in city operations management
• Ensure financial viability and create surplus for sustained development
Further, as per the mission guidelines – an area has been demarcated in the city for accelerated development. This area includes locations such as Residential in Block 45 & 46, Affordable Housing in Block 45 and Commercial packages in Blocks 51 to 56, 58 in the DTA Area, Office building in Block 2, 13 to 15 and Artificial lake with Recreational area in the SEZ area, Social infrastructure in DTA includes School and Hospital. Following are the initiatives that will be taken up in the demarcated area:
• Physical infrastructure development - District cooling plant, solid waste pipeline, travellators, utility tunnels, smart water distribution network, electric vehicles, mobile environment friendly toilets, multi-utility parking, sewage treatment plant, engaging landscape design and street furniture, water treatment plant, power substation, online rainwater harvesting, and utility street trench.
• Social Infrastructure Development - Amphitheatre, non-vehicle street zones (pedestrian friendly pathways), lake development (Samriddhi Sarovar) - MBR, public bike sharing platform, and green space development.
Across the city, key information and communication technology initiatives will be taken up to enhance the operational efficiency and ensure citizen delight. These initiatives include augmentation of city command and control center, augmentation of city network and city wide Wi-Fi, citizen app, common city card payment systems, digital sign boards, emergency response systems, ERP, smart kiosks, smart meters (water and power), smart parking, and city surveillance.
Click here to read the Draft Smart City Proposal
