Ludhiana from Architects point of view in 2019

Ludhiana, January 1, 2019: Architects are the real creators. They play a key role in building new cities and giving trending looks to the existing cities and towns. They are the ones who can play a vital role in making cities like Ludhiana smart cities. On the arrival of New Year, City Air News spoke to some of the leading architects of Ludhiana to know what they think about making and seeing Ludhiana as smart city in 2019 or what changes/developments they want to see in Ludhiana in 2019. Here’s what they say:

“With the environmental, economic and social changes facing our cities, we have to think very differently about our place on this planet. Smart cities are ushering in a new era of technology and advancements in how we design, how we build, and ultimately how we live as we attempt to craft better, more sustainable cities. A smart city must always be evolving. It makes use of automated technology to gather data, and then uses that data to regulate and control any number of municipal systems. These systems range from transportation to education, but also include complex networks of buildings, roads, bridges and electric grids. Making cities smarter means making them aware of the inputs that contribute to how these various systems operate, then using technology automatically make things more efficient. “Smart” doesn’t necessarily point to the automated, artificial intelligence of different systems, but can simply refer to the way in which planners, architects, and city officials uses this advanced technology to approach any number of ubiquitous issues. Being smart about urban design and architecture means understanding economic growth, density and zoning, and how the existing network of roads and grids can be better. It has almost everything to do with the people who live in and are moving to these cities, and what sort of cultural underpinning they represent. Those societal values are vital to determining the direction a city is heading, and how smart it ultimately becomes. A righteous man once said “If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves”. Hence, obviously, after the collection of the statistical data of the ongoing problems and conditions of the city Ludhiana, we can initiate by mimicking the already technological advanced cities in the world. According to me, Ludhiana can start by having an intelligent transport system which regulates the speed limit on the roads by automatically judging the traffic and even segregates the different lanes by speed limits. The automated flash sensors will detect the over-speeding defaulters automatically and the challan should be directly sent to their places in a given time frame. This will reduce the traffic problems and corruption at the same time. For example, Barcelona is consistently championed for ranking high across the board for various metrics used to analyse city intelligence. Despite being one of the oldest and most storied cities in the world, they have managed to implement city wide upgrades to their electrical grids, smart traffic and parking systems, even street lights that are properly timed and use low energy bulbs and solar power for operation. Such changes can be slow to adaptation due to the grand scale with which such transitions must happen on. Architecture is so important to the success of a smart city. Big ideas are nothing without the people on the ground who have the wherewithal, the experience, the intelligence, the rigor and the skill to make it real. Therefore, a very basic understanding of installing dustbins with segregated waste on every road could be a clever beginning. Moreover, these dustbins should be smart dustbins. The implementation of Automatic Garbage Fill Alerting system using Ultrasonic sensor, Arduino Uno, Buzzer and Wi-Fi module. This system assures the cleaning of dustbins soon when the garbage level reaches its maximum. It will take power supply with the help of Piezoelectric Device. If the dustbin is not cleaned in specific time, then the record is sent to the Sweeper or higher authority who can take appropriate action against the concerned contractor. This system also helps to monitor the fake reports and hence can reduce the corruption in the overall management system. This reduces the total number of trips of garbage collection vehicle and hence reduces the overall expenditure associated with the garbage collection. It ultimately helps to keep cleanliness in the society. Therefore, the Automatic Garbage Fill Alerting system makes the garbage collection more efficient. To conclude, you need the right components. Shortcuts, including fancy or cheap solutions, do not work in the mid-term. However, open standards do work, as any city infrastructure has demonstrated in recent decades. Technology matters, therefore be smart and protect your investments by leveraging the evolution of standards rather than potentially ephemeral proprietary capabilities.” Ar. Balbir Kumar Bagga, Hon. Treasurer IIA Ludhiana Center, Balbir Architects and Consultants 314, Mehak Tower, Kailash Cinema Road, Ludhiana.