The Problem:
The Smart Cities Mission of the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India is an
opportunity for up-and-coming cities to develop a vision for their future. Bilaspur in the state of
Chhattisgarh is one such emerging city – relatively quiet, low profile and typical of an urban area
in India with its unorganized pace of development. It is not too late for Bilaspur to develop a
strategy of urban development for a sustainable future. Chhattisgarh thus nominated Bilaspur
for the ‘City Challenge’ of the Smart Cities Mission.
As funding from the Smart Cities Mission is allotted in phases, the ‘City Challenge’ has been
held every year since 2014 (when the scheme was first introduced) in order to determine which
cities would receive funding during each phase. To compete for selection in the ‘City Challenge’,
aspiring cities prepare a strong proposal that argues why they should qualify. The Ministry of
Urban Development requires that the Smart City Proposal covers several components including
city profiling and key performance indicators, vision and goals, strategy for redevelopment and
retrofitting, citizen engagement etc. Residents of nominated cities were required to be engaged
and consulted for preparing an inclusive vision for the city.
Why D21:
The last 2 rounds of the ‘City Challenge’ have witnessed 60 cities winning approval for funding.
Bilaspur is putting its hopes on Round 3 and have made careful preparations to increase its
chances of selection. City municipalities are allowed to hire external agencies for preparing the
SCP. D21 was engaged specifically for handling the task of citizen engagement and consultation
during Round 3.
Description:
The process stretched from January to March of this year and primarily included intensive door-
to-door surveys of all 66 wards of Bilaspur city (the smallest body of local government in
Bilaspur), organizing consultation meetings with significant sectors of development (including
transport, energy and health among others) and gathering inputs from students on their vision
of a Smart Bilaspur. Vulnerable sections of society, including the disabled and women were
provided special attention.
As residents were generally unaware about the Smart Cities Mission and unsure of how they
can participate, outreach activities were essential in order to inform the public about the same.
This included 400,000 advertising SMS that were sent out to mobile phone users in Bilaspur. A
vehicle covered the city of Bilaspur announcing pertinent information regarding the Smart City
Proposal as well as the citizen engagement activities that were organized.
With the onset of the digital revolution in India, digital tools for engagement and for spreading
awareness were utilized. Comments, suggestions and inputs from residents of Bilaspur were
found on different websites of the government (smartbilaspur.in, mygov.in) as well as on social
media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.
Implementation Challenges:
It was an enormous task considering the size of the population of Bilaspur (roughly 330,000
according to the census data from 2011). Time was also a big constraint regarding efficient
execution of the engagement strategy, as citizens were engaged and consulted for a mere 2
months while the rest of the time was spent in formulation of the strategy and preparation of
the final SCP. Though it was in everyone’s best interests to further the digital revolution in India
by promoting online polling, it was difficult to shift citizens away from the conventional method
of paper surveys. The survey teams found that most residents from the lower classes did not
possess smart phones or computers.
Outcome:
The results of the citizen engagement process have been presented in the form of data
analytics and incorporated within the final SCP.