Creating Standards for the 100 Smart Cities Programme

The 100 Smart Cities Programme initiated by the Government of India is gaining momentum. The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) has created a sectional committee under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in order to develop a formal process of preparing, issuing and implementing standards that will govern the 100 Smart Cities Programme. On Friday, 22 May 2015, the committee held its first meeting under the chairmanship of Dr. Sudhir Krishna, IAS, Former Secretary – Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and Chairman of the Smart Cities Sectional Committee.

Participants for this first meeting included experts and professionals from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the School of Planning and Architecture - Delhi, AECOM, EMBARQ India – WRI India, NASSCOM, Greenstar Research and Development India Private Limited, Municipalika, 3M, PPDM Consultants and Jindal Saw Limited. The objective of the meeting was to engage with the public and private sector and create sub-committees to participate in the stardardization process in the areas of terminology, components, planning, design, integration, implementation, operation, maintenance and assessment.

Amit Bhatt, Strategy Head – Urban Transport and Prerna Mehta, Manager – Urban Development and Accessibililty represented EMBARQ India – WRI India as part of this sectional committee that will continue to work under the direction of the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD).

"Standardization for smart cities will ensure a common understanding on the subject among various committees. The work shall incorporate details of each component like physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure." Amit Bhatt, EMBARQ India

The meeting started with a formal welcome from Mr. B.K. Sinha, Head of the Civil Engineering Department - the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). After giving some background on the formation of the committee, he introduced the draft concept note on the standardization process prepared by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) that would form the basis for creating sub-committees. The meeting was then taken over by Dr. Sudhir Krishna, who highlighted the purpose of the committee with detailed timelines and deliverables for each sub-committee.

The meeting ended after the Chairman announced the various sub-committees who were assigned their specific areas of work. The work on standardizing the programme is expected to be completed in one year.