Page 87 - Connecting cities and communities with the Sustainable Development Goals

United for Smart Sustainable Cities
Connecting cities and communities with the Sustainable Development Goals

2 The project(s)

2.1 Vision and content
The city administration of Ahmedabad has set out its vision to “Provide efficient, affordable, equitable and
customized governance for citizens of Ahmedabad” and the project conceived under smart mobility is a
reflection of the vision. The open loop payment system along with automatic fare collection is envisaged to
offer seamless transit facilities such as journey planning and payments across public transit systems (bus
rapid transit system, city buses and metro which will be launched in 2017) and informal public transit systems
(shared taxis and auto-rickshaws). A seamless experience across the mobility systems along with adequate
planning and scheduling has the potential to decongest public transport and reduce the end–to–end transit
times for citizens, thereby allowing the city to use the existing transit capacities to the maximum extent
possible rather than investing in new urban mobility infrastructure. This approach that the city has taken to
use technology to maximize infrastructure facilities will enable the city to free up capital budget for funding
other social development initiatives.

The features being developed in an integrated fashion across the three initiatives (ITMS, AFCS and CCPS)
include:
▪ real-time tracking of city buses, in-bus surveillance systems, and bus station surveillance systems to
monitor the buses and driver behaviour;
▪ data-driven bus scheduling and depot management to optimize the operation of a fleet of buses;

▪ real-time calculation of ‘Estimated Time of Arrival’ based on ambient traffic conditions in the city;
▪ unified payment mechanism through open loop cards across various modes of formal and informal
public transit to reduce the revenue leakage;

▪ city-wide open loop payment card to facilitate digital cashless transactions across services offered
by the government and private sector;

▪ area-based connectivity infrastructure to facilitate digital inclusion and connectivity to field devices.
The city has developed these system on a bedrock of innovation, by utilizing technologies such as data
analytics (to schedule buses and display an estimated time of arrival), Internet of Things (to gather field-level
data), open loop cards (as an alternative mode of payment), and open APIs (to integrate with informal public
transit systems).

2.2 Implementation and perceived outcomes

The implementation of the “Smart Mobility” programme for the city of Ahmedabad is being done under the
Government of India’s “Smart City Mission” whereby the central government offers a seed capital of USD
73.5 million to each of the selected cities and the state government matches the funding offered by Central
Government, thus allocating an aggregate of USD 147 million to each of the selected cities. The programme
execution is performed at a city level by a newly created city-specific ‘Special Purpose Vehicle’ (SPV) which
has an equal equity stake of local government (resulting from grants received from Central Government) and
state government. This independent SPV is headed by a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who is responsible for
the overall strategy and day-to-day execution of various projects envisaged under the “Smart City Mission”.
A new institution structure created at city level has offered urban local bodies the required agility to execute
large scale technology transformation projects. The institution also engages with citizens through an
extensive consultation process over digital and physical channels and projects are prioritized based on
aspirations of citizens. For the city of Ahmedabad, public transport was identified as a major issue by the
citizens and hence the SPV came forward with the “Smart Mobility” programme.

The overall implementation approach was customized for each of the subsystems based on commercial
models, and the risk appetite of city administration and the private sector. For instance, the technology
components were developed on an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) model coupled with

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