Lessons Smart Cities Can Learn From Jamshedpur

Jamshedpur, the most populous city in Jharkhand, is very different from other Indian cities. The city, which was planned by Tata Steel in 1908, boasts of a sewage treatment plant which no other city in the whole state has.  Jamshedpur is also the only city in India where sewage is collected and treated in entirety before disposal. As the government goes ahead with its smart city mission, the Jamshedpur model could be of great help to plan these better.

• In a 2013 study of AC Nielsen ORG-Marg, Jamshedpur is named the second-best city in quality of living in India. Primary reasons for this rating were reliable electricity, water supply and sewage systems. In International Global Water Wards 2008, Utilities and Services Company Ltd was ranked the best provider of water in India. In this town build for employees of Tata, the company owned tracts of land that are large enough that they could plan infrastructure.

• George Mason University professor Alex Tabarrok points out that despite being privately run, water, sewage and electricity provisions in Gurgaon are not efficient. Unlike , private providers of these sources do not own enough land. So, they do not have enough incentives to plan infrastructure that would benefit the whole city. To attract the best employees possible, Tata Steel had to invest in civic infrastructure in Jamshedpur. 

• By allowing private developers and companies to buy land easily, the government can ensure a better infrastructure. If land acquisition laws were easy throughout the country, we would have seen more cities like Jamshedpur. Tatas founded Jamshedpur in 1908, when it was easier to acquire land. Acquiring land is not easy anymore.

• Private providers of services in a city are unable to benefit much, because they serve lesser number of people. Electricity, for example, can be privately produced using diesel, when it is intended for a small group of consumers. But, the cost per consumer is much greater than in publicly provided electricity. In Jamshedpur, water and electricity costs lesser than it does in other Indian cities as it serves majority of the population.