सीईओ स्पिक्स
I am pleased to report that 2016-17 has been a remarkable year for the Pune Smart City Development Corporation Limited (PSCDCL). We continued to fulfil the company’s promises and commitments to various stakeholders and ensured that contractors delivered results in a timely manner.
During this period, PSCDCL showed rapid progress with extraordinary results on multiple fronts. We successfully implemented our delivery plan of key milestones and actions. We also initiated and completed some major projects including:
- The Smart Elements project which will deliver several ICT elements for the use of citizens
- Placemaking and open spaces project, along with the development of four theme-based sites
- Pedestrian-friendly urban planning project of street redesign. This has helped in providing universal accessibility, better walkability, more space for street activity and segregated lanes for visually impaired users
- Creating the Digital Experience Centre to educate citizens on the various initiatives of Pune Smart City
- PMC-led implementation of the street lighting project, which has used energy efficient LEDs as replacements for sodium vapour lights
- Low income skill development project in collaboration with PMC. This ncluded counselling and employment generation skilling for the disadvantaged youth through the efforts of Pune City Connect and NASSCOM
- Other proposed IT and urban planning projects were also initiated. These will deliver long-term benefits like traffic modelling and controlling, developing a high-speed fibre network across the city, developing more sites across the city on innovative themes.
The initial funding strategy, proposed at the time of preparation of the Smart Cities proposal, continues to be refined and refreshed. At the summary level, PSCDCL has adequate sources of funds to meet its funding requirements. Leading inflows of cash ensure that PSCDCL will always be surplus on funds. The company is well positioned to thrive in any foreseeable market or economic environment.
Salient features of Pune Smart City’s funding plans include leveraging various measures and projects such as:
Land monetization to fund its projects: Pune is better placed, compared to other Indian cities, in terms of real estate, with absorption rate for commercial real estate at an all-time high. As a result, there is significant potential for revenue generation from land monetization in the ABB region. As per estimates:
- There is potential to generate INR 100 to 500 cr from land monetization in the transit hub in Balewadi, which will be a unique transit oriented development providing connectivity to multiple models of transport
- Smart IT projects for monetization: Pune is also envisaging a set of IT projects that could help with monetization, including:
- Smart elements: INR 10 to 20 cr could be generated through monetization of wifi, VMDs, etc. PSCDCL is also exploring the potential for data monetization for data generated through the Command and Control Centre
- Smart poles: PSCDCL is expected to install smart poles, by leveraging rooftops and the city’s infrastructure such as street poles, roundabouts etc., to enhance digital connectivity. This has potential to generate INR 75 to 100 cr across the city (to be taken up after legislative approval) over the next 10 years
- OFC dark fibre: PSCDCL can potentially drive optical fibre across Pune, with INR 75 to 100 cr revenue potential (to be taken up after legislative approval) over the next 10 years
Convergence to drive funding: PSCDCL enjoys the benefit of residing in a Municipality that has surplus funds and enjoys AA+ ratings. As a result, several convergence schemes are possible, which may not be feasible in other cities. PSCDCL is in a position to attract approx. INR 800 cr of funds through convergence of various schemes. It is also actively pursuing several other central government schemes and has already submitted the application for FAME subsidy for electric vehicles (EVs).
The Company has also taken up financial initiatives in accordance with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to improve revenue/tax collections for PMC.Looking ahead at 2017-18, PSCDCL’s scorecard will be shaped by positive reviews of the implemented projects and commencement of key impactful projects mentioned in the Smart City Proposal.
PSCDCL has also successfully enlisted key members of the executive team – a full-time CEO supported by a senior team of Company Secretary, Chief Knowledge Officer and Chief Financial Officer as well as a large team of General Consultants. In addition, 22 full-time staff have been appointed in support roles. Experienced engineers have also been partially allocated by the Municipal Corporation to supplement PSCDCL’s implementation and supervisory activities.
Pune’s Smarty City program has also been a proud winner of various award’s like BW Awards and SKOCH Awards, and has been the Smart City Finalist at the Smart City Expo-World Congress 2016, Barcelona. Recently, the Company signed an MOU with the University of Toronto and IIT Bombay for knowledge sharing and identifying challenges while deriving key solutions to city’s problems. This collaboration will focus on identified areas of priority such as digital interoperability, cyber security, skill building, housing for all and immigration adoption.
PSCDCL is committed to engage with citizens and fulfil their suggestions, thus constantly updating and incorporating them into the ongoing projects and its delivery.
We look forward to the active support of all our stakeholders to successfully implement our upcoming projects. We are strongly committed to excel and will strive to ensure rapid growth in the coming year.
Yours truly,Dr. Rajendra C Jagtap
(CEO & ED, PSCDCL)
