Smart City

The Government of Punjab has realized the importance of making its cities, particularly the intermediate cities, more livable and has put the urban sector at the forefront of its national development strategy. Punjab Vision 2030 and Framework for Economic Growth envisage livable cities as engines of national growth and centers of economic activity, culture, and knowledge. The framework also recognized the advantage of the local governments in managing the urban development on the ground, as they are closer to the beneficiary population with an informational advantage in identifying citizens preferences, as well as essential flexibilities to respond rapidly to evolving city needs. Under these circumstances, the government amended its constitution to decentralize the role of urban services to the provincial which will support key urban sectors including water, sanitation, and urban transport & spaces in the cities of Punjab, Pakistan.

With the introduction of ICTs and digital tools, Smart City has become a much needed initiative in the context of urban and local governance. A smart city as a foundation of efficient local urban governance is an integrated system in which government and its social capital (citizens) interacts and gets benefitted, using technology-based efficient solutions. Smart city is a compressive framework, predominantly composed of ICTs to develop, deploy, and promote sustainable development practices to address growing urbanization challenges. A big part of this digital framework is essentially an intelligent network of connected objects and machines that transmit data using wireless technology and the cloud. The smart solutions also utilizes Cloud-based IoT applications to receive, analyze, and manage data in real-time to help municipalities, enterprises, and citizens make better decisions that improve quality of life. The Government of Punjab, under the supervision of its Local Government & Community Development Department has envisaged to utilize the emerging trends of Smart Solutions through the first of its kind Smart City Strategy.

Therefore, PICIIP under its output 4 has a specific initiative on using such smart solutions for efficient and resilient urban management. Under the project, The Smart City Initiative is based on two components. i)It includes Development of a high level long term Smart City Strategy and Roadmap (underway). The Smart City strategy will provide the overall vision, objectives, governance and institutional framework etc. The envisioned smart city strategy will cover 6 vertices including Smart Governance, Smart Environment, Smart Living, Smart Economy, Smart Mobility and Smart People. The strategy will indicate and outline Smart Solutions/projects to be implemented under each vertical in short, medium and long terms.

Specific to this assignment and in the short term, it is envisaged that pilot Smart City solutions will be implemented in the cities of Sialkot and Sahiwal. A preliminary level need assessment, e-readiness and situation analysis is conducted for the cities of Sialkot and Sahiwal. Keeping in view the current priorities, resources, capacities and more importantly a citizen centric focus, pilot Smart City project will be aimed at ‘Establishment of Model Integrated Smart City Command & Control Centre (ISC4) for Sialkot & Sahiwal’ with gender mainstreaming ensured at all stages of the project cycle (Please refer to the Annex for the high level requirements and features on these envisaged smart solutions). It will include i) One Stop Smart Window Operation for MCs/Smart Citizens’ Information and Facilitation Centers (Smart Governance) ii) Solid Waste Management Smart Monitoring System (Smart Environment/Smart Governance) iii) IOT based Smart Water Supply Management System (Smart Environment) iv) Air Quality Monitoring, Information & Communication+ Disaster/Crisis Management cell especially urban flooding (Smart Environment/Resilience)

To implement this pilot phase of the Smart City Initiative, The Project (PICIIP) requires to recruit a Smart City Planning and Implementation consulting firm (SCPI) to design, develop and implement selected Smart City pilot projects in Sahiwal and Sialkot that include complete turnkey smart solutions deployment. The SCPI firm will be responsible for the entire project planning, management and business process re-engineering to implement Smart solution that will include but not limited to provision of feasibility study and situation analysis, Smart Solutions design & investigations, procurement and contract management, implementation, budget and financial management, cost control, scheduling, risk management, public outreach, monitoring, auditing, reporting, and ensuring compliances and due diligences required for the project. SCPI firm will ensure gender mainstreaming at all levels of the Smart City projects planning, implementation, management and monitoring. SCPI firm will also ensure compliance with all mandatory environmental and social safeguard parameters set by the Client. More importantly, SCPI firm will closely coordinate with the ODBM consultants to assess and manage potential synergies and any possible integration in scope of work and technological solutions e.g. ERP/GIS/MIS for assets management etc., as well as to avoid any duplication of efforts.