Elets Technomedia in association with Lucknow Municipal Corporation and Lucknow Smart City Limited organised National Liveability Summit on February 22 in Lucknow. The one-day summit addressed issues and challenges faced by city administrations to make a city more livable and the solutions.
The conference commenced with the lighting of the inaugural lamp and a welcome address delivered by Dr Indramani Tripathi, CEO & Municipal Commissioner Lucknow Smart City. Dr Tripathi detailed about the significance of the liveability factor in cities and mentioned the role of citizens in making a city more liveable. Dr Tripathi was the Co-Programme Chair of the event.
Sanyukta Bhatiya, Mayor, Lucknow, graced the Summit as Chief Guest. She said, “Lucknow has grown in some or the other field every day. And, if we continue to work like this we will one day make the city a real smart city.” Bhatiya emphasised on citizen-centric approach saying, “To make it smart we need to make people aware about the city, administration, security, cleanliness, civic services and involve them in making the city smart in its real essence.” She further said that there is a need to self-examine ourselves to monitor our actions and make sure that corrective steps are taken whenever needed.
Mukesh Kumar Meshram, Divisional Commissioner, Lucknow and Chairman, Lucknow Smart City Ltd said, “We often see traffic jams in the city. Traffic density is one of its main causes. We need to make public transports like buses more affordable, punctual, smart.” Further, Meshram, who was also the Programme Chair of the Summit said that the smart city will be creating a mobile app and will be integrating buses with geo-location system to enable people to track bus routes and locations. Integrated Transport Management System (ITMS) will be used to monitor traffic and smart systems will be installed which will announce traffic violations and no parking zones to people.
Dr Raj Shekhar, Managing Director, Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) in his address said, “Lucknow has every aspect which can make it a better place to live in. What is needed is to lead the city in the right direction to make it more livable. Raising concerns about the mobility issues in Lucknow.” Dr Shekhar also said that to make a more liveable, there is a need to improve transport in the city. Transport is essential as it affects almost every aspect of a citizen’s daily life.
Asim Arun, Additional Director General of Police, UP112, Uttar Pradesh Police focussed his address on security in cities. He said, “Although, the smart cities mission do address issues about safe public spaces, we are as well trying our best to create an environment safe enough that women can move out at night without any sought of fear.” He also added, “Police, Fire Agency, Coast Guards, Hospitals and more have been integrated under one telephonic address that is 112 countrywide. This is another step towards enhancing the security and response time of the agencies in case of need.”
Anju Gupta, Additional Director General of Police, Women Power Line, 1090, Uttar Pradesh Police, talked about eight cities that have been chosen for making them safe for women and Lucknow is one of them. Gupta further said, “The women helpline in the city that is 1090 runs 24/7. Only female operators take the call which is the first step to make the complainant comfortable. 70 percent of these calls are bout teasing and cyber-bullying. We give 99 percent satisfaction by resolving the issue.”
She also added, “A review is taken from the complainant after a month from the date of filing of the complaint to assure if the things are completely resolved. In case of serious issues like child rape, rape or other such cases we make sure that after reporting the case to the police we get a response on the status of the case within 24 hours, especially if the case is true.”
Tinku Roy, Chairman, Tripura Industrial Development Corporation Ltd said that smart cities are making services smart, upgrading traditional infrastructure smart but not making people smart, especially labourers, farmers. There is a need to make people smart and address their issues, only buildings and technology will not serve the purpose.”
The other sessions of the Summit delved on the sectors of Housing, Energy, Tourism, Transport, Security and Culture in Liveable Cities. An esteemed panel of speakers actively participated and addressed the session brainstorming, discussing, and picking out probable solutions to urban issues affecting the liveability of cities.
The other speakers who shared their views from the policymaking perspective included Mahendraa Modi, Water Conservation Advisor to Government of Uttar Pradesh; PK Srivastava, Additional Municipal Commissioner/Additional Mission Director (AMRUT), Uttar Pradesh; Rajesh Mehtani, Additional Management Representative, Uttar Pradesh Housing & Development Board; Raghvendra Kumar Dwivedi, State Radio Officer (UP 112), Uttar Pradesh Police; Arvind Singh, Executive Engineer (IT), Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (MVVNL), Uttar Pradesh; B K Jain, General Manager, SIFPSA / National Health Mission, Uttar Pradesh; Manish Narayan Sandilya, Team Leader – PMC, Lucknow Smart City Limited and Monica Agnihotri, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), North Eastern Railways (NER).
The speakers who presented the industry perspective were Suresh Chandra Tripathi, Chief Technology Officer, Reline UV Asean Pvt. Ltd. (KKSpun India Group Company) and Syed Haseeb Arfath, Co-founder and Managing Director, ParXsys MoBliT Systems Pvt. Ltd.
The session concluded on a high note.