PANAJI: City planners and architects, on Saturday, said that their participation in the smart city project is unavoidable. The planners, speaking at the conference on ‘Smart Cities Opportunities and Challenges,’ organised by Institute of Town Planners India (Goa Chapter) in the city, said that the integration of technology and design should be made simpler and less expensive, which is a challenge.

They opined that collaboration amongst professional planners and institutions should be a part of the city designing process to take up the challenges.

Addressing the gathering, Milind Ramani, an architect and urban planner, said that “since the launch of Smart Cities Mission, everything has been termed as smart – smart transportation, smart buildings, but all the innovations have opportunities and risks. Technology as the main driver of the smart city concept renders the role of the urban planner superfluous. Technology should be used only as a tool to monitor urban services and not considered as the only solution.”

He further highlighted the importance of involving citizens, professionals, city planners and governing agencies in the smart city project for wider acceptability and transparency.

Speaking at the meet, Panaji MLA Sidharth Kunkalienkar said that people migrating to cities require comfortable and affordable housing, mobility systems, clean air, sanitation and access to other urban services.

“Since such services are not affordable in the city where most jobs are located, people are forced to find housing in cheaper outskirts, leading to sprawling of cities and lack of access to comfortable modes of transport,” he added.

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