How smart is a smart city?

"Smart" is a pretty abused word these days, thanks to the smart phones. Add to that noise, the hooplah behind the ambitious "Smart City" Project, and you have SMART which is does not do what a smart does. Dont belive me, take a look yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGpVpsaItpU

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/3-girls-fall-into-sea-while-clicking-selfie-man-drowns-in-rescue-bid/

Smart phones do not make us any smarter, on the contrary, the time we spend on the phone would otherwise have been spent on social and personal interactions, so I am pretty sure smart phones make us a little dumb in the long run.

Coming to other smart, my city rejoiced when the declaration was made to include Bhagalpur in the list 100 smart cities to be developed in India.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Bhagalpur-to-be-developed-as-Smart-City/articleshow/52424075.cms

FB posts on how this would change the face of a city which has seen little change in the last 30 years were all over. I was born in Bhagalpur, went to school there and it is the only city in the world I call home. I have been living in different cities over the last 18 years and have never been in Bhagalpur for a period of more than a fortnight in the last 18 years. I hope this absence does not take away my resident status and my authority to write a piece on it.

Getting back to the FB Posts, they filled my wall. Demolition drives were in full swing, property prices had shot through the roof overnight and my parents had called me to wish me ,"Bhagalpur will be smart city when you come next", they said. It overwhelmed me.

My memories of the city are very distinct. As my memory serves me, school books and studies are accompanied with the dim yellow light of earthen lamps and smell of burning kerosene. Going to my village 22 Kms. from the city was an ordeal of five hours which included a two hours boat ride across the angry river Ganga. I was once swept away in a drain during rains as the flash flood had swept away the only lane that led to my home. Going to the only hospital in the city was considered the last journey, few folks ever came back from that grim looking building.

The city had no infrastructure. The next 18 years after I left were not any good either. It still does not have any infrastructure. I was there last week on a short trip. The roads are non-existent. The water connection is available only to one-third of the city. With the monsoon hitting the city hard, open, overflowing sewage lines have turned into small flash floods. The hospital is still grim and again, the city has no electricity. It brought back all the childhood memories.

I went through the smart city presentation made in the initial rounds of the smart city challenge. Its available here. http://www.smartcitieschallenge.in/city/bhagalpur
The team of consultants working on the presentation had a tough time making it. How do you propose to convert a city which lacks basic infrastructure facilities into a smart city? How do you incorporate 21st century technology in a city stuck somewhere in the pre-indepence era?

Bhagalpur was a a great knowledge centre in the past (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikramashila ). It was one of the most important commerce centre in the eastern India with direct links to the sea route through Bay of Bengal. All that glory vanished over time, and layers of political and civil inactivity turned it into to semi-urban jungle.

Turning all this into a smart city will be a challenge and possibly a great accomplishment of the central government, if there vision turns into reality.It will be a challenge for the local administration to move beyond their lackadaisical and lethargic attitude and start taking steps to make the city smart. It will be a great challenge for the citizens for the city too. A city is only as smart as its citizens.