UNDERstanding Indian Urban Governance REFORM: A Comparative Analysis of the Smart City Mission Reforms and Their Impact on Sustainable Urban Mobility

Duration: 05/18 - 05/20

Rapid urban growth and a lack of adequate infrastructure have resulted in congestion, pollution and poor living standards in many cities. While attempts to address these issues have been constrained by insufficient capacity and resources at a local level, the Indian government’s Smart Cities Mission aims to boost these efforts through the use of smart technologies.

UNDERstanding Indian Urban Governance REFORM: A Comparative Analysis of the Smart City Mission Reforms and Their Impact on Sustainable Urban Mobility examines the achievements of this approach to date through detailed comparative studies of four designed smart cities in India (Jaipur, Indore, Kochi and Bangalore). In particular, it focuses on ongoing governance reforms and the effects these have had on local urban mobility systems.

Alongside the development of this research, the project will also support the creation of a collaborative network of practitioners and academics in India and the UK working on these issues. This network will enable productive multi-stakeholder knowledge exchange and ensure key lessons are effectively disseminated to urban policy makers.

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Greg Marsden (Principal Investigator, Professor of Transport Governance)
Morgan Campbell
Sanjay Gupta (Professor of Transport Planning)
Louise Reardon (Institute of Local Government Studies Lecturer)
Ashish Verma (Associate Lecturer)

  • Development of a qualitative evidence base on governance reform, urban mobility and smart solutions in four case study Indian cities (Jaipur, Indore, Kochi and Bangalore).
  • Creation of a transnational community of researchers and practitioners in India and the UK, supported through study visits to the UK, a ‘summer school’ in India and a special session at the World Conference on Transport Research in Mumbai.

Putting the governance in smart cities
7 April 2019