Varanasi Municipal Corporation’s proposal for the Indian Smart Cities Challenge Phase-II #SmartKashi - Smart City Proposal © [year] [legal member firm name], a [jurisdiction] [legal structure] and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative, a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.. 1 Document Classification: KPMG Confidential EXECUTIVE SUMMARY “To rejuvenate the oldest Indian living city of Varanasi as a great place to live Intro: Varanasi’s proposal for Phase 2 of and visit by conserving and the Smart Cities Challenge was drafted showcasing its enriched heritage, by putting our citizens right in the culture, spirituality and traditions middle of all discussions. Varanasi through innovative social and financial Municipal Corporation’s (VMC) inclusion solutions.” outreach to the residents, involved a massive awareness and discussion From the vision, we derived six key campaign which leveraged: pillars of Varanasi’s future.Citizens indulged in animated discussion on — Print-media: 60 articles their preference of ABD area. Our — Radio: 9 lakh secondage citizens identified the following across 3 channels parameters as crucial to selection of — Advertising: 165 hoardings the best fitted ABD area: — Tableau vehicles: 6,000 km — Social Media (reach):2 lakhs i. Citizen priorities ii. Impact assessment Citizen connect: A multi-pronged iii. Ease of execution approach was adopted across 175 iv. Revenue generation potential. workshops, which bucketed diverse groups representative of key Our deliberations resulted in the demographics selection of the iconic Old City area adjoining the Kashi Vishwanath temple — Renowned personalities from and serene riverfront ghats as the Area Arts & Culture Based Development area. — Established educationalists — NGOs Leveraging SMEs to layout the Strategic — Tourism industry Blueprint:With an understanding of the — The business community pulse of our people, we at VMC — Economically weaker reached out toa variety of SME experts sections (eg. Boatsmen) to discuss the outcomes of our SWOT and the citizen’s vision to identify possible interventions. We started our citizen dialogue on approach & methodology, and Our esteemed panel of experts continued it to the detailed SWOT included: analysis. Citizens were brought to a (a) Regional Centre for Urban & broad consensus of issues, from which Environmental Studies, Lucknow we derived our Vision of #SmartKashi. (RCUES) Vision: The outcome of the SWOT was (b) SMEs from the Indian Institute of deliberated on for us to arrive at an Technology, Banaras Hindu appropriate vision, which truly University (IIT BHU) represented the aspiration of our (c) Ministry of Urban Development, residents.This led us to develop, the Government of India (MoUD) following vision: and (d) Department for International . Providing a worthy platform for Development, Government of visitors to experience & imbibe United Kingdom (DFID) Varanasi’s inherently rich cultural and heritage The SMEs stressed on the importance of . Capitalise on Varanasi’s status practically implementable solutions, under the UNESCO City of music the benefits of which should have a label multiplier effect on the well-being of society, and which would be tangible These, amongst a host of experiential in the short to medium term. initiatives which indirectly also provided opportunity for meaningful The resultant solutions arrived at were employment for the local populace to then deliberated with citizens through benefit. our online & offline campaign to secure adequate stakeholder buy-in. 2. Nirmal Kashi| Area Based Development | INR 241.08Crore Our Smart Solutions: Varanasi’s spiritual importance is 1. Suramya Kashi | Area Based particularly derived from the revered Development | INR 572.14Crore Ganges, where visitors flock to wash their sins in the river, a symbol of purity. The predominant strength of Varanasi The irony being the poor sanitation in lies in its heritage, being amongst the the city and low adoption of eco- world’s oldest living cities (dating back friendly initiatives in our day to day lives. to 1200 BC).It is a treasure trove of culture and spirituality handed down The solutions accordingly are aimed at over generations. Rapid urbanization rejuvenating public spaces, particularly (on account of distress migration) and holy ponds and lakes while addressing a high footfall of pilgrims however, challenges of sanitation in the city have taken a toll on thecity. while promoting eco-friendly practices The old city area is a high density zone in the ABD area. Specifically, the (400-500pph), creating pressure for solutions include: substituting existing spacious . Rejuvenation of sacred water architectural forms with optimal space bodies& parks utilization plans. Citizen feedback . Providing effective emphasises that future development andaccountable SWMsolutions must not impede the old city charm. Increased adoption of earth Yet, given the tourist potential, citizens friendly initiatives such as green stressed on reviving the old city with rooftops and rain water minimal intervention which maximised harvesting impact. 3. Surakshit Kashi | Area Based The solution therefore lie in: Development | INR 15.81 Crore . Rejuvenation of historic temples Tourism is an important factorof the and the riverfront ghats holy city’s economy, given tourism’s multi-industry linkage, it offers tremendous benefits for the citizens to • Skill Development Centre for a reap. The year 2013-14 saw ~63 lakh “right-skilled work force” touristsvisit. Given the high foot fall of • Promotion of local artefacts by visitors, which is almost five times the establishing market linkages city’s population, it is important to be • Providing a platform to street recognised as a safe place to travel. vendors while decongesting streets Security is also an important aspect of • Develop a system of incentives to improving our people’s quality of life. boost R&D and innovation Varanasi being a city of all states, we • Implementation of smart borrow from the words of technologies to enhance the lives Nobellaureate Rabindranath Tagore: of local boatmen &e-Rickshaw drivers “চ ি ত্ তয ে থ া ভ য ়শ ূ ্ য য , উ চ্ চয ে থা ়ি র ” • Multi-purpose sports stadium for a healthier future “Where the mind is without fear, and the head held high” 5. Ekikrit Kashi| Pan-city initiative | To enable this,our solutions include: INR 81.40 Crore . Analytics based CCTV Our citizens sought ways to improve the Surveillance to reduce violations G2C interface and enable effective . Augmentation of Emergency and transparent two-way Response (ER) services communication between the two. The . Improving aspects of the police solutions therefore, seek to bridge the citizen interface digital divide while availing G2C services, by provision of a common 4. Samunnat Kashi | Area Based platform to interface with the municipal Development | INR 1209.84 administration in their hands (mGov) Crore and through digital displays at public spaces. This interventionis aimed to improve the quality of life of our residents, we are The solution requires a combination of dedicated to providing all classes with hardware and software which enable opportunities for meaningful a common platform, easily accessible employment while addressing other to our citizens while reaching out for social parameters such as sports. It G2C services. The solution includes: • Accessibility to transparent envisions, promotion of local information and quality services for entrepreneurship, ease of doing all citizens business and seeks to provide • One-stop-shop Smart card employment for various skilled, semi- • Information in your palm – Mobile skilled and unskilled groups amongst app other solutions. • Effective grievance redressal mechanism The interventions under this pillar include: 6. Sanyojit Kashi | Pan-city alternate mode of transport initiatives| INR 737.39crore Together, the municipal administration During our conversations with citizens, a of Varanasi and our residents believe common cause that was espoused by each of these solutions, if successfully them included the challenges in intra- implemented and nurtured would go city transportation. Public transport in miles to unleash the true potential of the city is currently driven by 130 busses our people and India’s ancient procured by VMC under JnNURM heritage. which ferry close to 20,500 passengers per day. Reliance on them is low on account of intermittent and irregular ****** service. Intermediate transport in the city is driven by a combination of e- Rickshaws and cycle rickshaws who do not have a standard fare. Encouragingly, vehicle sharing as a concept appears acceptable to the local populace as is evident from the use of e-Rickshaws. The city’s traffic density is primarily comprised of two wheelers which account for 79% of vehicles against a minor 7% attributed to cars. Citizens regularly voiced their need/desire for an effective and reliable public transport system which would help in decongesting roads, reducing pollution and yet be comfortable for everyone to travel in. Towards improving intra-city transport, the following solutions are proposed for long, intermediate and short trips: • Multi-modal transportation hubs with Metro and other public transport • Integrated traffic management system with CCTV surveillance • Smart multi-level parking in the city for reducing congestion • e-Rickshaws for clean last mile connectivity • Development of waterways as an INDIA SMART CITY MISSION