Not so smart aspects of an aspiring to be “Smart City”

Tiruchirappalli-Trichy for short-is one of the cities in Tamil Nadu that has been listed as an urban area to be upgraded to “smart city” city.

In this post, I am going to cite a couple of newspaper reports and set of pictures of the Indian version of “public art” to question the very understanding of “Smart City” by our political, business, civic and other leaders.

The first time I heard about such transformation of an old city was when IBM, having lost its preeminent position in Information Technology, transformed itself into an IT consulting business, and now supposedly bringing, on its own, better conditions for living in Rio de Janeiro. Of course, it was all about integration, systems approach, big data, analytics and more.

Then, India fell flat for the idea. Everything else, as no one would say, is continuing history.

Trichy is second to none in looting the exchequer and this “Smart City” mission was a golden chance not to be let gone.

The way I understand the basic concept of a “Smart City” is that the citizens are empowered, mobility of the citizenry is enhanced at affordable cost, the environment is improved, crime is reduced (improved quality of street life, a big thing in Europe), systemically developed effective response to disaster events, and the overall quality of life gives citizens reasons to live in the city – comprehensively speaking, citizens become stakeholders in their cities.

Now, come to the projects that are in progress or about to start under the “Smart City” mission apropos Trichy.

The Trichy Corporation has given a concession for multi-colored illumination to a private party on Design, Build, Operate and Transfer (DBOT sub-mode of Public Private Partnership) for five years. How does this qualify under the “Smart City” concept? Search me. Oh, you say, surface beauty hides deep ugliness and hence this is a smart way of managing a city. I cannot disagree with you.

On top of this comes another article in the same vein, this time about a sound and light show (son et lumiere, very very old stuff) near the Theppakulam which is in the shadow of the Rockfort hillock, which houses Manicka Vinayagar, Thayumanavar and Ucchi Pillayar temples), again to be concessioned out to a private party. Seeing these, excuse me for being cynical, the “Smart City” mission is one of routing tax payer money to the purses of private players with no thought to the citizens.

  

OK, all of these are from newspapers.

What have you got for me that is truly original, you ask. I am getting to it.  Public art, with a park around it, say at a large traffic rotary with many arms, or as at Connaught Place in New Delhi are examples. These abound in European cities. So, Trichy cannot be left too far behind, the corporation decided. And, they built, not a park, but space for a set of three tiger statues put up sequentially, tiger has landed after one leap, prepares for the next and then leaps further. Where did they find the space? Just where the main road enters the city after crossing River Cauvery, and meets the landing of the flyover across a railway line to reach the byepass.

Here lies the irony.

Look at the picture below. Though there is the story on the tiger too, I would first focus on how the location of this “public art” hinders pedestrians, and more to the point, makes crossing the road unsafe for them.

 Focus on the marked pedestrian crossing. Once you have crossed the road, where are you to go? The triangular platform, which is called the “traffic channelizing platform” is ring fenced! So, you walk along the road! Why? You are making Trichy a “Smart City”.

Now, look at the quality of the “Public Art”. What is that green pole doing in there? It is supporting the back part of the third tiger. The sculptor possibly misjudged the connection of the front foot of the tiger to the pedestal and taking a short cut, he/she put up a prop towards the back end! This about how ugly ugliness gets! It devalues the supposed art, very severely. Why did the corporation demand that contractor who designed the channelizing island, as inappropriate as it is, to overcome the deficiency through an invisible intervention? Not impossible, I can assure you.

In this picture you see the front statue, the tiger taking its second leap. Not bad. But, one should also note that the front tiger is supported on its hind leg, and still has no prop towards the front end. Why can’t this have been done for the tiger at the back! And that is the status of things in a “Smart City”, not knowing the why, the what or the where of anything!

This to show only that the pedestrian crossing abruptly stops at the chanellizing island and does not extend even to cross the traffic channel – such half heartedness, such incompetence, such lack of concern for pedestrian safety – all in the name of making Trichy a “Smart City”.

God forbid that Trichy ever became a “Smart City”. I am living there as is and can continue to live there, as unsmart as it is. Just do not make it “Smart”.

Raghuram Ekambaram