India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) (formerly Ministry of Urban Development), Government of India, put forth a Smart City Challenge to develop a strategic plan for improving a city and its residents’ lives with smart solutions. One hundred cities across India were chosen to compete and provide an area-based proposal with a unique vision, mission, and plan. Arcadis supported the development of the Bhubaneswar Smart City project proposal, leveraging its global experience in transportation, planning, design, technology, and intelligence. Working with the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), State of Odisha, Arcadis prepared its Smart City Plan, which was ranked first out of 98 cities in the country.
A comprehensive approach to Bhubaneswar urban development was taken, considering land use and transport, mobility, active transportation, energy, water, waste disposal, and integrated infrastructure. The effort required extensive consultation with residents to better understand the needs of the city, with initiatives such as conferences, solution contests, and collaboration labs to engage and empower the public. An implementation strategy was prepared that identified key projects, addressed organizational and financial structuring, and determined institutional arrangements for raising capital.
Recognizing that the urban transformation in Bhubaneswar envisioned by the Smart City Plan will only be successfully realized if responsive governance is its primary strategic focus, Arcadis supported Bhubaneswar with strong legal backing through acts, policies, and regulations aligned with smart growth principles of New Urbanism. This support includes citizen-centric collaborative decision-making and a unique institutional capacity enhancement initiative—the Bhubaneswar Urban Knowledge Centre (BUKC). This one-of-a-kind Urban Knowledge Centre with more than 15 staff, including sector experts, in the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), will assist BDA in bringing its Smart City strategies together and provide professional resources and service to create an in-house knowledge resource center with a physical presence in the BDA. Furthermore, it will support the delivery of cutting-edge expertise in five key domains:
- Child-friendly Smart City Centre
- Transportation Planning
- Urban Design and Placemaking
- Smart Cities and Systems Integration
- Communications, Capacity Building, and Knowledge Management
Additionally, an Intelligent City Operations and Management Centre (ICOMC) will oversee multiple city subsystems, including traffic management, parking, bus/transit operations, common fare card, smart utilities, emergency response, and city incident management. Additionally, several citizen engagement initiatives, such as city portals, open data, telecommunications, and city Wi-Fi zones, will help residents and businesses become integrated within the community.
Awards and recognition won for this project:
- Pierre L'Enfant: International Planning Award 2017 (American Planning Association)
- 1st Place Winner (India National Smart Cities Challenge)
- Award of Merit 2016, International Development Category, By Canadian Institute of Planners