Singapore Tourism Board holds ‘Smart Cities’ summit in Capital

The Singapore Tourism Board, in partnership with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) organised a ‘Smart Cities and Urban Solutions’ summit in New Delhi on Thursday.

According to a press release, ‘The Singapore Dialogue’ focused on learning from best urban planning practices pioneered by the city state.

The release said the panel comprising Anandan Karunakaran, SVP, Surbana Jurong Planning Group; Stanley Samuel, Founder & CEO – ECOSOFTT and Mukundan Venkatachari, Hyflux; discussed key learning from smart cities like Singapore in the current Indian context. Furthermore, urban solutions such as waste water management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, affordable housing, robust IT connectivity and digitalisation, as well as good governance were hot topics among the attendees.

AnandanKarunakan, SVP of SurbanaJurong Pvt. Ltd., said, “Given the challenges of limited size and resources, Singapore’s success stories of integrated and innovative urban solutions are very encouraging. The key pillars that define Singapore’s urban planning system are: quality and affordable housing for Singaporeans, the amount of green space which makes it one of the most liveable cities in the world and added to this is an integrated and efficient transport system.”

Mukundan Venkatachari, MD, Hyflux Engineering (India) Pvt Ltd, said, “Singapore treasures four key sources of water, which are – local catchment areas where rain water harvesting has been implemented that ensures water is distributed to 17 man-made water reservoirs; imported water from Malaysia; waste water management is efficiently operated with the presence of three waste water plants and underground pipelines in Singapore; and the fourth source is desalination that accounts for25 per cent of national water requirement.”

Stanley Samuel, CEO, ECOSOFT, said, In Singapore, every drop of water is respectfully captured, harvested, used and reused multiple times. If and when discharged, it’s done in a very environment friendly way. Likewise, we consult with corporates, schools, farmers, communities and industries to reduce water wastage by 50 per cent and discharge waste water in environment friendly ways. We also conduct programmes to educate them about utilising existing water resources.”

Yuemin Li-Misra, area Director of India and Bangladesh for Singapore Tourism Board, said, “The positive turnout for the “Smart Cities and Urban Solutions” Summit brings to light how important sustainable urban solutions have become in our fast shrinking world. Being a country with no natural resources, Singapore has, and continues to tackle these issues through consistent development, innovation and integration in the field of science and technology.”