Nanded: Becoming a Smart City?

Situated on the bank of the holy Godaveri river, Nanded, the second largest city in the Marathwada Division of the state of Maharashtra has a great historic significance. The land touched by great Sikh and Sufi veterans is rapidly transforming into the Smart City by intelligently integrating IT into governance.

Emerging Commercial Hub

Nanded is the second largest city in Marathwada after Aurangabad, and the headquarters of Nanded district. It is the 8th largest urban agglomeration after Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nasik, Aurangabad, Solapur and Amravati. Nanded is rapidly transforming from a tourist destination to an industrial and commercial hub. The proposed Nanded Aurangabad Industrial Corridor whіch connects Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project has potential to transform not only Nanded but the entire Marathwada region into an industrial hub.

Financial and banking sector has seen expeditious growth in recent years. Almost all major public sector and private banks including the State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, State Bank of Hyderabad, Bank of Maharashtra, City Bank, ICICI Bank, Bank of India, HDFC Bank, etc. have opened up branches in Nanded. Real estate industry is also booming with large number of realty projects coming in the city.

Nanded is an Educational Hub in Marathwada. There are nearly 131 colleges and 3 private Engineering Institutions. The Nanded University and Government Medical College are situated here. Yeshwant Mahavidhyalaya affiliated to SRTMU (Nanded University) is another reputed college which provides degrees for graduation and post graduation in different specializations.

Integration of IT

Nanded sets ideal example that how IT integration in the administration can bring efficiency in the city governance. In a major step towards making Nanded a Smart City, Axis Communications in association with Nanded-Waghala Municipal Corporation (NWCMC) has brought the entire city under CCTV surveillance with deployment of more than 100 CCTV cameras. The project aims at ensuring safety and security, disaster management and faster response systems.

Sushil Khodwekar, Municipal Commissioner of NWCMC said that the safe city project enabled to bring efficiency in the city management. He said that the project would definitely help the police to curb the criminals and keep a track on crimes such as robbery, house breaking etc.

Nanded IT Association has proposed to develop a mobile application on e governance which will provide all the information about schemes, procedures and status of various city projects to the citizens. Nanded is also on the path of becoming Wi-Fi enabled city very soon.

Need for investment

Though Nanded is one of the early cities which cleverly integrated the IT in the governance, there is need for investment in the IT sector. No big IT companies have so far explored the potentials in the city. Nanded IT Association, the prominent IT association in the city which addresses the reseller community has demanded establishment of IT cluster in the city.

Dipak Mortale, president of Nanded IT Association said, “We have demanded the government to set up IT cluster in Nanded. The proposal is under approval, however, we demand that the government should give positive node to our proposal.”

Mortale said if comes into reality, the proposed Nanded Aurangabad Industrial Corridor will boost the IT and industrial growth in the city.

Though it is highly potential, Nanded has so far remained unnoticed in terms of investment in IT and industries. However, with positive approach and proper policy implementation in place, Nanded can rapidly transform into the global smart city very soon.