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Nature has been generous to Pune. With a salubrious climate for 10 months of the year, both enchanting hill towns and pristine beaches a mere three hours’ drive away, fertile soil that yields crops from sugarcane to strawberries, and plenty of sweet, mineral-rich water, what more could one ask?
As if to top these, men of good manner set up educational institutions that trained young minds, helped create an ethos where the performing arts thrived and set up industrial estates that more than kept the home stoves burning.
So Pune achieved, and, to a large extent, still helps citizens achieve, the rare balance between earning a living and actually living.
Then the ‘progress’ juggernaut set off on its runaway journey. Rapid migration, coupled with the lack of civic foresight that’s almost endemic to Indian cities has brought in its wake the familiar ills: a polluted river system, horrific traffic, overflowing garbage, unchecked growth… the works.
Interestingly, Pune’s pitch for the smart city proposal was prepared by global consultancy firm McKinsey, which was selected on the basis of the Quality- and Cost- based system and was paid Rs2.6 crore for the exercise.
Citizen engagement
The preparation of the report was preceded by a nine-phase, citizen engagement exercise conducted in association with 40 organisations, including the municipal corporation, NGOs, educational institutions and private companies.
Five of the nine phases pertained to pan-city imperatives and identified top issues, set goals within priority sectors and generated ideas for solutions; the four others were for area-based development.
More than two-thirds of the citizen engagement happened offline. “We got 35 lakh inputs, and reached half of the total estimated 40 lakh population,” says Kunal Kumar, Pune’s Municipal Commissioner. “This level of engagement is huge, considering that the entire population of Bhubaneswar (the city that topped the first list of smart cities) is only 10 lakh.”
Priorities questioned
Not everyone is upbeat about the modus operandi for identifying the priorities, or indeed the blueprint for the first phase of implementation. Vandana Chavan, Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra and President of the Pune unit of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (which has a majority in the civic body), is among the skeptics.
ReadBusinessLine's interview withPune Municipal Commissioner Kunal Kumar
Click here to read about other Smart Cities
While acknowledging the merits of a smart city plan, Chavan, a former Mayor of Pune, demurs on both the pan-city priorities as well as the choice of the area identified for the pilot.
The very modality for preparing the proposal, she says, was flawed and not inclusive. “The administration may have received inputs from citizens, but it was not a dialogue. The elected representatives were not consulted and the general body was pressured into passing proposals on the grounds that the deadline had to be met,” she claims.
‘Unrealistic promises’
In her estimation, there are “far more pressing issues – such as garbage (disposal) and toilets – that need to be addressed.” She is convinced that the promise of round-the-clock metered water is unrealistic. “When there is a severe water shortage even today, and even 2017 is expected to see deficit rainfall, this promise of 24x7 water cannot be kept,” she says.
Chavan is also critical of the selection of the Aundh-Balewadi-Baner area for the pilot. “This area is already Pune’s showpiece, and the residents are educated. Just 500 families here live in slum areas in a city where an average 40 per cent live in slums,” she says. Bettering Pune’s “best area” is taking the easy way out, she feels; in her view, the only reason the place got the People’s Choice slot was because the residents here are internet-savvy.
Activist Vijay Kumbhar has similar reservations. “Small pockets in the chosen ABB, which are `difficult’ areas (slums and low-income housing), have been conveniently omitted from the plan,” he says.
Kumbhar is also dismissive of the claim that the PMC can raise Rs 1,000 crore through land monetisation. “In all, it has 10-12 acres of land. Anybody suggesting that it will fetch Rs 90-100 crore per acre either does not know the city or is living a pipe-dream,” he remarks. “If one-third of the money required is not going to materialise, what can become of the project?”
The consultant’s price
Another concern relates to the Rs2.6 crore consultancy fee paid to McKinsey. “The average payout for consultancy for all the other cities in the contention was Rs 40 lakh,” says Kumbhar.
Kumbhar is just as uncomfortable about the secrecy clause in the model Articles of Association issued by the Central government for the SPVs that are to be formed to execute the proposal.
“The mission gives all the rights to collect taxes, take loans, sell or lease public properties, earn profits for the shareholders and the company formed under the SPV, but takes away the common citizens’ rights to transparency,” he rues.
Click here to read Pune's vital stats
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