In the recent years, Pune has emerged out to be the business and IT hub of the nation. Pune is an economically vibrant and sustainable city which has an abundance of diverse opportunities and rich culture. It is a great city wherein the citizens enjoy a safe and livable environment with good conditions and connectivity. Recently, under the Smart City Initiative taken by the Indian Government by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pune has been qualified to be one of the smart cities under the initiative owing to the immense opportunities and great scope to be developed into a smart city. Some of the main essence of the smart city Pune includes:
- The city relies on buses for public transportation. Owing to the same, Smart City Project has declared the construction of two metro lines of the total area of 31 km has been approved by the Government of India.
- Pune has sufficient sources of water at the aggregate level. The focus as specified by the Smart City Project is on the supply improvisation and the reduction of the leakages in the city. Under the Smart City Project, construction of jack well in the Khadakwasla Dam is in the final stages.
- Under the solid waste management in Pune, significant progress has been made under the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” for which PMC is in the process to improve the collection of the waste in slum area from 35 per cent to 100 per cent.
- For ensuring the security and safety conditions in Pune, it has become the first city in India to have 24/7 surveillance with around 1300 CCTV cameras. Along with this, apps have been used to keep track of the stolen vehicles and social media platforms are being used to connect with the citizens.
- With respect to the energy availability and the reduction of light outage in the city, Pune under the Smart City Project is aimed at the electrification of around 98 per cent of the entire city including the urban and the rural areas. In addition to this, PMC also aims at the promotion of the solar energy with solar water heating to be made compulsory in various buildings in DC.
- Under the Smart City Project of Pune, for the housing situation in the city specially in the municipal for expediting building plan approvals and for the enhancement of the tax collection of the property and real estate, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority has completed as many as 38 projects which are targeted at thousands of tenements.
- When taken in a note of the administrative efficiency in terms of overall attendance of the functionalities, PMC aims to provide the employees with information on software, font conversion tools, hardware drivers and much more.
- For ensuring the two-way communication between the administration and the citizens, PMC aims for online engagement through Facebook pages, YouTube videos, interactive website, Instagram page, Twitter and several user-friendly mobile apps. PMC also aims to provide connected portals to the citizens through messages and emails.