| Abstract |
Development in a planned manner always make optimal use of available resources and helps in economic growth. Traditionally, with reference to land-use pattern, in most of the cases the development has been taken place in un-planned manner, which no-doubt in short-run might have provided some desirable solutions, but in long run over period of time with the expansion of population and economic activities too, they are more painful. Therefore, development in planned manner is necessary for sustainable growth. Hence, in Indian context, having look at growth and development of many urban areas over period of time is unplanned manner in many respects are creating now much of the problems and less of solutions. Problems such as housing, sanitation, pollution, overcrowded areas, transportation, safety, etc. are some of the issues our cities are facing today. This gives bigger challenges to sustainability. Thus, Government of India very recently introduced the concept of smart cities and trying to developed modern cities with all required facilities and supporting system in a planned manner so in long run it may further contribute in economic growth. Therefore, in phase manner our government selected some specific cities to begin with and try to develop them further in the form of smart cities by removing the bottlenecks such as transportation issues, housing problem, infrastructure inadequacies, lack of public utility services, congestion and emissions, employment generation, resource utilization, etc. Again, through optimal use of available resources and further develop required facilities and resources we can bring solution to the smart cities concept and move ahead. Thus, in current study an attempt is being made to understand how underutilization of capacity can create problem for making our cities smarter. Amongst many essentials of smart cities, transport and transport infrastructure plays an important role in growth and development of urban areas into smart cities. For the purpose of the study, we have taken Jaipur Metro rail as a case, since existing network is not fully utilized given certain bottlenecks, which further create barriers to make our city smarter. Further, the underutilization of the capacity leads to non-viability of operation. Hence, the study undertaken will also look at possibility of enhancing capacity utilization of existing mass rapid transit system (MRTS), i.e. Jaipur Metro Rail as smart city solution and bring operation viability. Moreover, since effective and efficient public transportation is very important for the making of smart cities, which is again no doubt need of hour also, our study will try to bring possible solution relating to capacity utilization of Jaipur Metro Rail and make it more appropriate so it can further play very effective role in development of Jaipur city in much smarter way. |