A significant part of the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) focuses on area-based development (ABD) that includes city improvement, renewal, redevelopment and extension, and affordable housing comprises a big component of ABD. This has resulted in the convergence of the SCM and the Housing for All scheme across several cities. In addition to the development of affordable houses, the mission also envisages the development of smart/ intelligent buildings to achieve its goal of energy efficiency. Indian Infrastructure discusses the affordable housing and intelligent buildings components of the mission…
Affordable housing
With the aim of building the next generation of Indian cities where infrastructure is easily accessible and affordable, the mission looks at the issue of slums, focuses on affordable housing, and provides an interest subsidy for those wanting to avail of a housing loan as well as assistance to those who already own land but find it difficult to raise the necessary resources to construct a house. A number of cities have included affordable housing as a part of their ABD plans in their respective agendas.
Under the smart city proposal for Karnataka, more than 200 affordable housing projects have been envisaged to promote sustainable and liveablecentres of growth. Of these, over 130 projects have been planned in the cities of Belagavi, Mangaluru and Tumakuru, at a cost of less than Rs 1 billion per project. Besides these cities, affordable housing projects are also coming up in Hoskote, Devanahalli, Sarjapura, Anekal-Chandapura road and Electronic City in and around Bengaluru. Koramangala also has an upcoming affordable housing project of more than 1,500 units.
Dahod in Maharashtra has made significant progress in the affordable housing segment. The Dahod Nagar Palika has constructed over 480 affordable homes under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme to provide shelter to about 3,000 homeless people. Another 17,700 units are planned to be constructed in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and 9,350 units in Pune. Further, Visakhapatnam and Faridabad have also constructed shelters for the homeless. A number of cities are also working towards the goal of making themselves slum-free. Some of them are Vadodara, Bhubaneswar, Bilaspur, Ahmedabad, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Rajkot, Puducherry, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati, Tiruppur and Warangal.
Intelligent buildings
Intelligent/Smart buildings are an integral component for achieving smart city goals. The demand-supply gap for electricity, excess greenhouse gas emissions and changing preferences are driving the growth of smart buildings in the country.
While there are a number of smart technologies on offer, internet of things (IoT) is an indisputable leader in developing smart buildings that consume less energy and operate at a low cost. The prime advantage of deploying IoT in buildings is energy efficiency. The data collected and the insights gained by intelligent building technologies can help reduce energy consumption and achieve sustainability.
IoT initiatives aimed at achieving energy efficiency not only address conservation issues but also deliver cost savings and an impressive return on investments. Other than increasing energy efficiency, smart building technologies can also help in improving productivity. Data that is sent from the sensors to the IoT stack can be analysed for maintaining temperature levels, thus improving the overall productivity of occupants. IoT technologies also help building owners gather data and gain insights for predictive maintenance. Further, IoT devices ensure the safety and security of the property and its inhabitants.
With respect to smart cities, IoT has been used to monitor city operations by integrating data from various smart city solutions. The Bhopal integrated command and control centre (ICCC) uses a cloud-based universal IoT platform to enable authorities monitor the status of various civic utilities on a real-time basis. The ICCC in Ahmedabad connects 31,125 IoT devices to enable 24×7 civic management.
Launched in August 2016, US-based 75F is a building intelligence solutions provider that leverages IoT, cloud computing and machine learning to predict, monitor and manage various elements in a building such as temperature, lighting, air quality and energy. 75F’s building intelligence system offers a self-learning and intuitive solution that improves a commercial building’s operational efficiency and occupant experience. It optimises energy efficiency and controls heating, ventilation and air conditioning; indoor air quality; and lighting systems of a commercial building based on the data collected from smart sensors, weather forecasts, set points, occupant preferences, etc. Companies that have leveraged 75F’s building intelligence system include Flipkart, Bennett Coleman, Firstsource Solutions and L&T Infotech.
In sum
The recent policy thrust on affordable housing such as incentive schemes, the interest subsidy scheme under the PradhanMantriAwasYojana and accordance of infrastructure status to the segment has provided the much-needed impetus, resulting in a sharp rise in the uptake of new projects. Over the years, the pace of technology adoption has also increased significantly. Many innovative technology-led initiatives are being implemented across cities. With the potential benefits of smart buildings, the market for smart technologies is expected to expand in the near future. W