Kapil Sibal presents Future Cities India 2020 awards Smartness is the key feature of Future Cities

Smartness has to be the key feature of the future cities that would radically alter physical infrastructure. This was stated by the Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri Kapil Sobal while presenting the awards to the winners of Future Cities India 2020-Competition here today. He said smartness can enable our homes to become smarter, safer, more secure, more effective in identifying risks and other inputs and more adept at responding to them. Citing an example he said in an automated kitchens that can be seen in movies and even some expositions, the day is not too far when food packages having their own electronic chips will talk to the smart kitchen equipment and tell about what it is and how it is to be prepared. Similarly, in principle there seems to be no reason why a smart sewer system could not respond to its own flow moving and diverting the sewage into different places at different times. More importantly, responding to external changes, if necessary it may absolutely shut down and become watertight to save the community from the health disaster of swimming in sewage. The possibilities are mind boggling and here the intelligent day dreaming of children can put forth unthinkable options.

The Minister said that the ground realities of the cities of today are different. Throughout the world, about 70 million people migrate from rural areas to the cities every year. As a result most cities have grown unmanageable and have failed to cope with the challenge of unplanned growth. The urban development all over the world has become more similar in the 20th century because of a common energy basis. Quoting renowned designer and architect, William McDonough said that new cities are the objects of human artifice, but they are living systems that can grow, breathe and can be ecologically sound, just as tree, forests and gardens are. They can use energy, expel waste and reproduce in ways that nature intended without destroying everything else around them. That is the way future generation should dream and design our future cities. The goal of this competition is to focus the attention of India’s young minds on the infrastructure requirements of our country and engage them in the development of solutions to real-world problems.

Fifteen student teams representing eight high schools participated in the competition. Their challenge was to design a roadway between the Lakshmi Nagar and Noida Turning rail stations capable of accommodating the extremely heavy traffic expected during the Commonwealth Games 2010.The students were guided by teachers and industry mentors, and all of the projects were designed using advanced software provided by Bentley.The students’ project presentations were judged by a panel of distinguished experts from the infrastructure community, the jury included experts from National Survey of India, National Highway Authority and Delhi Development Authority.

The Apeejay School, Sheikh Sarai Team 1 has won top honors in the inaugural Future Cities India 2020 competition.The best physical model award went to DPS Public School, R.K. Puram while IInd best overall award went to team 2 of Apeejay School, Saket. Ramjas School R.K. Puram and U.P.R.A.S. were the other schools that participated

Source : Press Information Bureau
Date : January 19, 2007