How 'Smart' Are Indian Cities? Smart Building Score Will Help Decode

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is aiming high with the 100 Smart Cities Mission. Since, it is a first project of its kind, there is no benchmark that could define how 'smart' a city is. As a solution to the challenge, technology major Honeywell has launched a smart building score along with a survey on Indian buildings. The survey was conducted on over 2,000 buildings located across top 10 cities, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-national capital region (NCR), Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune. A majority of these buildings did not rank well on the smart score.

“In general, the smartness of buildings in India is low. On a scale of 1 to 100, the national average Honeywell Smart Building Score for these buildings is only 33,” the survey said. Buildings surveyed include airports, hotels, hospitals, private offices, retail, surface transport, government offices, education and social spaces, public services, and residential properties.

A better building score will help India's smart city mission to match global standards.

What is smart score?

The Honeywell Smart Building Score evaluates a building's “Smartness” across three key areas: green, safe, and productive. The building should have technologies that can help achieve these three key parameters. Some of these technologies include use of natural resources, flexible heating and cooling systems, regular monitoring of energy consumption, carbon emissions, utility costs, carbon footprint, indoor air quality sensors, and lighting systems.

What does the survey say about Indian buildings?

The survey, conducted on 2,000 buildings across the country, unveiled that:

• Commercial buildings like airports (49) and hotels (41) are smarter than educational institutions (27) and residential buildings (26)

• Most buildings have up their green quotient, driven by a push for sustainability from Indian rating agencies, coupled with government incentives

• There is a consensus that a vigorous citizen-level activism on green and safe buildings will be necessary to make the smart cities project a success

• Both private (34) and public (29) buildings have similar overall scores 

• Bengaluru tops the list of cities investing in smart buildings. A key reason behind this is that the city has a large number of upcoming projects that use modern technology

• At 8, the lowest rated aspect of buildings was safety and personal protection of service and maintenance workers