Smart city: SURAT - GUJARAT. A resilient, born-again city is poised to soar

In many ways, Surat is already a city transformed. It was once perceived as among India’s dirtiest cities, which perception was tragically validated in 1994. That year, a plague epidemic overwhelmed the city, claiming two dozen lives and tarnishing the reputation of not just Surat, but of Gujarat (and, in a larger sense, India). In the eyes of the international media, India was in the same league as the bubonic plague-ravaged Europe of the 15th-16th centuries.

But the legendary SR Rao, Municipal Commissioner (1995-97), converted that crisis into an opportunity. A cosmopolitan Surat, the second-largest city in Gujarat, is now scrubbed clean every night.

Surat is virtually the financial capital of Gujarat: it is the hub of the 80,000-crore global diamond business and is also India’s textile and silk centre, employing 10 lakh people.

Public-spirited city

The sense of a greater common good is strikingly manifest among its residents. It is probably the only Indian city where residents have willingly demolished even their legal constructions to pave the way for civic amenities and urban development, and where they diligently pay their taxes — on time. Shopkeepers are often seen clearing garbage themselves and encouraging others to do likewise.

Surat’s reputation as a city where civic spending on infrastructure and services is fully recovered from the residents’ user charges is somewhat unique. It is a business-friendly city where multinationals feel welcome.

In the last two decades, large parts of a flood-prone Surat were submerged on three occasions, but each time the city bounced back. Along with Bengaluru and Chennai, Surat figures on the Rockefeller Foundation’s global project of ‘100 Resilient Cities’. “This, in Gujarat, is called khamir (resilience),” points out Kamlesh Yagnik, Chief Resilience Officer, and a trustee of the Surat Climate Change Trust (SCCT), a multi-stakeholder trust set up by the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) in 2012.

SCCT has focussed on areas such as flood, health, environmental pollution, water, traffic and social cohesion. Interestingly, the Surat Police has, over the last three years, trained 10,000 women in martial arts to ensure the safety of women in the city.

Challenges of growth Surat is among the fastest-growing cities in the world. Its population grew a breathless 68 per cent in the decade from 2001 to 2011, against the national average of 14 per cent.

According to the World Bank Sustainable Development Network, Surat is among the world’s most climate-change affected cities, having experienced 23 floods, including those in 1998, 2006 and 2013. “The city’s most pressing urban resilience priorities are learning lessons from past events, building community and social resilience for early response to floods, preventing vector-borne diseases, and improving nutrition, water management and the electric grid,” it noted.

Contours of Smart Surat Even before Surat was picked for development under the Smart Cities Mission, the city was well down the road of modern urban development. So, what would a Smart Surat be like?

The endeavour is to provide a high quality of life to all its residents through affordable housing, cost-efficient physical, social and institutional infrastructure, including adequate and quality water supply, sanitation, 24x7 electricity supply, clean air, quality education, affordable healthcare, security, entertainment, sports, interconnectivity and fast urban mobility. All of these are to be facilitated by efficient use of ICT-enabled services.

SMC Commissioner Milind Torawane said that Surat is expected to emerge among the most successful Smart Cities, given its enlightened and responsible citizenry. “In modern times, Surat became the first city to witness a self-revival from 1994. The 2001-10 period was its golden era for industrial growth.”

Also read: There are long-term benefits, says Milind Torawane Surat Municipal Commissioner

Click here to read about other Smart Cities

Surat’s Smart City project envisages the development of specific areas and their integration with a pan-city initiative. The hub for area development will be the famed Textile Market, which incorporates seven town planning schemes spread over 2,167 acres (8.77 sq km)..

This hub has a population of 5 lakh, and an additional 1 lakh of floating population. Accounting for about 10 per cent of Surat’s population, this area is an overperformer: it contributes 16 per cent of Surat’s GDP. The textile sector employs over 10 lakh people, many of them from outside the State.

“We hope to set up the required special purpose vehicles in the next two months and start the projects under the PPP mode by the second quarter of 2016-17,” Torawane said.

To meet the flood challenge, 26 wireless stations have been set up in the catchment areas of the Ukai and Hathnur dams in adjoining Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra; additionally, storm water drains have been improved and flood-level markers installed. Street poles have been colour-coded with inundation levels. By 2011, the slum population was brought down to just 10 per cent of the total 44 lakh.

In that sense, the rejuvenation of Surat has been under way for more than two decades now. Building on that, Surat seems well poised to benefit from the smart city initiative.

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