MAKING OF SMART CITY SHIMLA: PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION AND FUTURE COMMITMENTS

Abstract

Urbanisation is a cyclic process taking place in an integrated manner as the towns are growing both in number and size and moving up to the level of cities and finally a quest to achieve the target of being “Smart” in the present scenario. The present paper tries to analyse the spatial distribution of facilities in Shimla City and its status through the mirror of Smart. The demand of increasing urban amenities and resulting problems are viewed as one to one solution through “Smart City” project. The priority sectors comprising of availability of water supply, health facilities, educational facilities, sanitation facilities, along with the social, political, economic and environmental factors are retrieved in the Smart City Shimla theme through first hand data. It was evident by the secondary data collected from Municipal Corporation Shimla that around 80 percent households are covered by door-to-door waste collection and till now 12 initial projects have begun to be implemented in the city at ground level. Therefore the present paper has been aimed at analysing the perception survey of the public representatives of the city along with officials and other people in order to gauge their understanding of the concept of smart city and spatial distribution of amenities in Shimla town with a view for future planning and development. Thus general public is looking forward towards the government for their involvement in the projects as soon as possible so that they can see the results of their working visible on the ground.

 Keywords:Urbanisation, Basic Facilities, Smart City, Shimla Smart City, ICT, Innovation.