Union Government has revealed its latest Swachh city ranking, in which Mysore has topped the list. Bangalore has lead the list of state capitals. The rankings have been compiled across the criteria of open defecation and solid waste management. Patna has been at the bottommost position. Among the capital cities, Bangalore has been followed by Trivendrum, Gangtok and New Delhi and Chandigarh.
Swachh Bharat
The campaign, which is believed to be the brainchild of Indian PM Narendra Modi, is getting warm reception from citizens and policy makers. It is set to generate more awareness on sanitation and solid waste management practices along with adopting some of the best practices to make Indian cities litter free and enhance its cleanliness quotient. The plan which is worth INR 620,000 million has proposed developing 60 million public toilets, out of which 50 million has been built in 2014-15. The ambitious project is also receiving generous aid from the corporate and public sectors, receiving funding in tune of over INR 10,000 million in the last 12 months.
Swachh Bharat campaign is believed to act as complimentary element to Smart City Initiative and other urban development plans by government of India aimed at development of international quality infrastructure and efficient management of resources through latest technologies and innovations. Together both can help Indian cities up its ante and get international outlook.
Bangalores Success
The success of Bangalore could be attributed to multiple factors, which include effective garbage collection, elimination of litter spots and effective emphasis on awareness generation. Increasingly emphasis has been given on adoption of technology to enable better waste management. Recently in Bangalore a mobile application has been developed that can help people take snaps of litter spots and submit on the portal. This will be followed by sending the auto SMS to relevant ward management to undertake subsequent action.
Residential Market
The Swachh Bharat is expected to make a significant impact on the Indian realty market in the coming time. Though it would be difficult to calculate how much impact the present rankings will will entail on the dynamics of Indian realty market, but in the mid to long term a successful Swachh Bharat will catalyze higher interest and sales towards Indian realty market.
As discussed above, Swachh Bharat in conjunction with smart cities will result into development of powerful physical infrastructure and civic amenities.
With the Swachh Bharat campaign, over the period of time there will be substantial surge in cleanliness quotient of Indian cities. This will change the image of Indian cities, which hitherto do not enjoy a very great image on the International landscape due to known for being overcrowded with poor hygiene conditions. This overhauling of the image will be in perfect sync with the infrastructure development- a Key objective of Smart City plan. Both in tandem can stimulate domestic and international investment and give further boost to the Indian realty sector.
