Experts were too much concerned over these issues during a panel discussion on “Chandigarh as smart city” held at the College of Architecture here today.

On one side, R Srinivas, representative of the Union Ministry of Urban Development, and Head, Metropolitan and Union Territories Division, was hopeful that the guidelines for the smart city will be approved by the government soon and work to develop 20 cities will be commenced to provide better lifestyle to its residents.

He said the Prime Minister had instructed all states to develop a speedy clearance process for the early commencement of projects in the country.

On the other side, Hafeez Contractor, a Mumbai-based architecture, found that “the idea of the smart city was irrelevant as the cities, at present, are in a horrible state. For the next 20 years, this smart city will be a hot topic for discussion, but nothing will be implemented on ground as we are not even able to provide basic facilities such as economical housing, 24-hour water supply, infrastructure and employment for youth in any of the cities”.

He said ‘free housing to bureaucrats’1 should be discontinued as it was the right of other residents also who were deprived of the facility due to the non-availability of economical housing.

Contrary to it, Kapil Setia, Chief Architect, Chandigarh Administration, said the authorities were soon going to notify Master Plan 2031 for the city, which would give a vision for the smart city project. He, however, accepted that lengthy clearances and overlapping of policies were a hurdle for any new project in the city.

• 1. "While the smart city is a welcome gesture, it is an irrelevant concept. We are wasting time talking about what's not even there. It will take years to put in place the plans, leave alone passing them," said Mumbai-based Hafeez Contractor at the discussion held on Saturday. "For another 20 years, we will only be talking about smart cities without being able to put the present house into perspective," he added.