Participation of youth a must in making a ‘Smart’ Pune
Pune: Members of Young Inspirators Network (YIN), an initiative of Sakal Media Group, assured their participation in making Pune a Smart City during a discussion session held at Sakal International Learning Centre on Friday.
The session was headed by Resident Editor, Sakal, Pune, Nandkumar Sutar, Manager, Global Alliance, Delivering Change Foundation, Stefanie Feicht, YIN Head Tejas Gujarathi, Youth Officer for Rest of Maharashtra Sandip Kale among others.
While interacting with members of YIN, Sutar emphasised that Smart City is not about technology and infrastructure but about making lives of the common man comfortable and happy.
“If Pune becomes a Smart City, it will benefit the youth in a huge way. Hence, participation of youth in this initiative is a must,” added Sutar.
Feicht too spoke about making Pune a Smart City by involving people.
“To take Pune ahead in the race to become a Smart City, we have to submit a proposal to the government in three months. For this, we need to have a dialogue with people to understand the issues faced by them and their idea of making Pune a Smart City,” she added.
Students suggest ways to make Pune a smart city
Pune: The students of Modern College suggested solutions to problems that Pune has been facing during a discussion on how to make Pune a smart city.
Pune is a strong contender for becoming a smart city but transport is a major issue. Due to increase in number of vehicles, traffic congestion has become one of the major problems, which needs a permanent solution. One of the suggestions is having different timings for schools, colleges and offices so that at a time there are not many vehicles on roads. Similar suggestions have been put forth by college students.
In order to create an atmosphere where women feel safe there should be strong networking of police stations with the government offices. This can be achieved by providing telephone booth service at different locations. This suggestion was put forth by Shivani Patil, who further explained how the service can be handy for women when they are in trouble.
“The Smart City project won’t be realised unless the slums in the city are removed. This can be achieved by providing homes, healthcare facilities and education to slum dwellers. There is a good chance of getting skilled manpower from this section of society,” said a student, Divya Atwal.
Another student, Mahesh Chitreval suggested construction of a railway bridge over the Mutha river, while Ashish Thorve suggested that digitisation of classrooms in schools and colleges can promote the Smart City project.
The biggest problem in Pune is that of transport. One of the solutions can be providing mini-bus services to government and private sector employees, school and college students. This will ensure the number of private vehicles are reduced and it will be cost-effective. Along with government transport facilities, the private transport facilities can be strengthened. RS Zunjarrao, Principal, Modern College.