Smart Shimla

This Storymap is part of our wider research project on  Learning from Small Cities , and reports on our findings on Shimla, India.

Shimla, a city of about 170,000 people, is a picturesque hill station nestled in the Himalayan foothills. It has witnessed several political upheavals in the past century, which has come to be reflected in its demographic, social, and physical characteristics. It was the summer capital of the British Empire (1864-1945) when the colonial administration made the long arduous journey annually from Delhi in the plains to the Himalayan hill-station. Shimla was also the capital of Punjab state in the years following independence in 1947. Eventually it was incorporated as the state capital of Himachal Pradesh. Currently, it is designated to become one of the 100 Smart Cities in India.

In March, 1901 the population of Simla town in was just short of 14,000 people. However, a special census of Simla was taken during the summer months, and in July 1904 the population within municipal limits was found to be just above 35,000 people.

Simla's urban transformations are produced from the interconnected web of seasonal migration that contributed to the prosperous commercial life of the Bazaars at various levels - Mall Road, Middle Bazaar, Lower Bazaar, Gunj Bazaar, meat market, sabzi mandi and several others.

Shimla has a long history of planning with early interventions in the form of core infrastructure such as water supply, electricity, roadways, and railways. The  Shimla Improvement Trust  (SIT) was formed in 1875 and was responsible for overall upgrade of urban infrastructure. Water, sewage, and sanitation were amongst the key themes that dominated its concerns. The trend continued in the post-independence period and the city had its first Interim Development Plan (IDP) in 1979 closely followed by the constitution of the Shimla Development Authority (SDA) in 1980. Since then the plan has been updated and amended to reflect the nature of issues posed by the ongoing urban development in the city. While building regulations and careful control over land use have been the central themes in these plans, they have also come to attend to emerging issues such as traffic congestion and questions of sustainability. In 2016 the city published its first integrated report on risk management, hazard mapping, and assessment of vulnerability in the physical, economic, and social environment.

The following maps show key demographic changes such as population densities and growth, sex ratios, literacy and employment in the city between the 2001 and 2011 census.

Disclaimer: As in the case of many other small cities, the availability of data and possibility of analysis is hindered by frequent changes to the administrative geographies of these places. Changes to Sub-municipal boundaries are likely to have been arranged and re-arranged, changing the total number of wards in the city, their distribution , and the number of elected representatives in the municipal assembly. This also means that the Census data is not comparable over time across these shifting geographical and administrative units.

Click on the interactive timeline below to read more on Shimla's urban transformations.

Shimla was included in the 100 Smart Cities Mission after filing a petition in Himachal Pradesh High Court challenging the selection process ( Sanjay Chauhan vs Union of India and others, judgment dated December 17, 2015 ). After the High Court’s intervention, Shimla Municipal Corporation received the smart city tag in 2017. The  Shimla Smart City Proposal  (SCP) claims to focus on building resilient infrastructure; augmenting mobility and easing traffic congestion; solid waste and waste water management; strengthening tourism; and creating open spaces based on the priorities identified by citizens during the proposal development phase.

The tagline for Shimla smart city is ‘Clean, Serene and Vibrant’.

Shimla proposal includes 53 projects spread across three categories – (i) pan-city, (ii) retrofitting, and (iii) Area Based Development (ABD).

• Pan-city projects include development of software for information management systems (for health care provisioning, traffic control, transport services etc.), the installation of CCTV cameras, and city branding. Proposed pan-city projects budget: INR 197 cr.
• Given the mountainous terrain of the city, the proposed retrofitting projects focus on the improvement of junctions, roads, foot overbridges, construction of lifts, escalators, and tunnels. Other aspects of retrofitting include smart parking, smart road, ice-skating rink, smart bus stops, and e-toilets. The overwhelming focus here is on improving mobility and easing traffic congestion.
• The ABD project focuses on redevelopment of 48 acres of Lower Bazar, Gunj, and Krishna Nagar in the core area of Shimla. Proposed ABD projects budget: INR 2533 cr; Proposed area under ABD projects: 1 sq. km

The following presentation collates some of the proposed projects in the Shimla Smart City Proposal

A major roadblock for Shimla Smart City has been the  National Green Tribunal’s order  (Yoginder Mohan Sengupta vs Union of India and others, 16th November 2017) which bans residential, institutional, and commercial constructions in core areas and green-belt areas of Shimla and restricts the number of storeys to two-and-a-half in all other areas. The proposed redevelopment site in Lower Bazaar is within the jurisdiction of this Order. The proposal was premised on constructing multi-storeyed buildings to replace old buildings to ensure commercial viability and to create new open spaces. This order came into existence in November 2017, after the induction of Shimla into the Smart Cities Mission based on the proposed ABD projects. The order currently stands challenged and is under review.

The organisational Chart of Smart City Mission based on the ministry guidelines. The SPV or Special Purpose Vehicle formed by the winning municipality is the central actor co-coordinating with all other institutional actors to plan and execute the projects. However the actual set of institutions and flow of power differs in each city due to the diverse and complex political and institutional landscape in India.

Click on the interactive image below to read more about the different roles.

Assets below Cart Road in Krishnanagar speak for the intangible heritage of Shimla's rise as an administrative nerve centre of the empire. The heritage lies in the layers of bricks and mortar with which the hillside is made up as well as the memories and affective labour of incremental house building.

We adopted a community oriented asset-based approach to understand how people relate to Krishna Nagar and Lower Bazar and the tangible and intangible assets identified by participants.

The Shimla Smart City plan looks to build resilience in the economy by restoring the city’s natural and historic assets and strengthen and promote heritage tourism. The plan is to integrate existing informal economies, like those at Krishna Nagar and Lower Bazaar with the tourism sector. SDG 8, which aims to, “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all” is relevant here, and the plan to foreground the city’s cultural heritage and invest in sustainable tourism is very much in line with target 8.9 (“devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products”). However, this should not be at the cost of existing, informal economies, which is a priority for policy agendas such as the UN Habitat New Urban Agenda.

Participants of our CAM workshops in Shimla valued tangible assets such as religious structures, historically popular shops and existing mobility improving infrastructure, as well as intangible assets like the emotional value of historical buildings, architectural and engineering knowledge specific to the area, and the charm and ambience of Lower Bazar. In Shimla, communities look forward to a future of tangible assets such as secure land tenure and home ownership, safe and resilient housing, and a robust and functional sanitation system, along with a sense of belonging and safety in the imagined smart city.

The Shimla Smart City proposal revolves around the themes of building resilient infrastructure and promoting tourism within the city. The top 5 priorities include transport, urban solid waste, safe & green spaces, city planning and health & well-being that address the major SDGs such as SDG 11, SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth), SDG 6 (Clean water and Sanitation) and SDG 3 (Good Health and Well Being) and SDG 5 (Gender Equality). The planning of the city authorises the SMC for any construction related permission and totally bans any sort of development in the core and green belt areas.

In our CAM workshops we found that the Lower Bazaar community valued their natural landscapes which is now set to witness a complete redevelopment process. The proposed sites under ABD focus on constructing multi-storeyed buildings to replace old buildings to ensure commercial viability and to create new open spaces. However, the case still remains challenged and in the hope for a good decision.

The Lower Bazar community imagined it as a historically and commercially valuable part of the city, defining the landscape of the city and its dominant imagery in the public eye. Community members explained how it is governed through ideas of complete renewal and redevelopment. They experienced Lower Bazar as a home and a place of work and a continuation of family tradition; a place of precarious livelihoods and anxiety due to evictions; and as a place of recreation and enjoyment.

The Krishna Nagar community imagine their place as an informal encroachment, undeserved and dilapidated, and perceived as a hindrance to ‘smartness’ to some groups. For them Krisha Nagar was governed via a regime of manipulation and trust cultivated through political relationships resting on a balance of precarity and a promised future. It is experienced by the community as home, as a place of difficult living due to lack of infrastructure and services, and yet a place of hope.

The dominant understanding of smartness for citizens has to do with the availability of civic facilities. There were varied opinions on what those civic facilities should be and how they should be prioritized. Cleanliness and sanitation was an issue of priority. Regularisation of the existing built structures and security of tenure were other important aspects. A majority of Krishna Nagar residents are sanitation workers with the Shimla Municipal Corporation or with a cooperative society hired by MC for door-to-door garbage collection. Retired MC sanitation workers especially underlined the need to focus on cleanliness in Krishna Nagar and in Shimla in general.

For policy stakeholders, smartness was about improving efficiency and delivery of services on one hand, and 'ordering' the city by removing encroachments, re-building unstable buildings, and improving aesthetics and built environment. Shimla’s development challenge, due to its hilly terrain and resulting shortage of land, emerged as key themes to engage with in this context.

If you enjoyed interacting with this Storymap, please check out our other Storymaps on Nashik and Jalandhar below.