(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer)
Revamped Poloview market in Srinagar.

By Mohammad Hanief

Just before sunset, the Jhelum river in Srinagar looks almost still. Its banks, once strewn with broken tiles and dust, now carry a new calm.

The walkway is clean. Lights glow gently as the sun dips. A few college students lean against the railings. A couple walks slowly past tidy benches. It didn't always look like this.

This is the new Srinagar. Or at least, a version of it.

The city, along with Jammu, has been part of India's Smart Cities Mission since 2017. Eight years later, the results are beginning to show. Roads have improved. Digital screens have come up. Street corners that once drowned in garbage now have solar bins. The changes aren't sweeping, but they're steady.

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Polo View Market in central Srinagar, once noisy and chaotic, has been reimagined as a pedestrian-only stretch. The cobbled path winds through tidy storefronts, shaded by trees and new canopies.“Foot traffic has doubled,” said Suhail Ahmad, who sells Kashmiri shawls from a 40-year-old family shop.“People walk in now because there's no traffic stress. They actually stop and browse.”

In Jammu, a similar shift is underway. The city's first major riverfront project, the Tawi Riverfront, is open. The area once flooded with sewage and plastic bags is now lined with grass, walking trails, and seating zones.“It's the only place we come without spending money,” said Poonam Devi, sitting on a low wall with her son, a schoolbag on his lap.“There was nothing like this before.”

The Smart Cities Mission, launched nationally in 2015, promised infrastructure upgrades, better public services, and tech-driven governance. Critics called it cosmetic. Supporters said it was overdue. In Jammu and Srinagar, both views still hold. Some changes are visible. Others are buried in systems and sensors.

In Srinagar, an Integrated Command and Control Centre manages emergency response, water supply, traffic, and surveillance from a central hub.“We're able to respond faster now,” said an official from the Srinagar Smart City project, requesting anonymity.“Earlier, it was chaos. Now we have data.”

Digital services have crept into daily life. Birth certificates, property taxes, utility bills-what used to take a half-day at government offices can now be done online. In Jammu, a mobile app lets residents report potholes or broken streetlights. Garbage trucks are tracked by GPS. Solar energy is being installed on government buildings.

But not everything has caught up.

In Srinagar's Saida Kadal neighborhood, known for its working-class homes near Dal Lake, residents say smart city upgrades haven't reached them.“Our lanes still flood when it rains,” said Farooq Dar, a mechanic.“They fixed the tourist spots. Not this.”

The contrast between the polished and the neglected is clear. Smart parking sensors work in Lal Chowk. But in nearby Eidgah, drains overflow during the first rain.

In Jammu, summer heat remains a brutal equalizer. Electricity cuts continue, especially in poorer neighborhoods.“Smart systems can't cool a room if there's no power,” said Deepika Sharma, a schoolteacher in Janipur.

Still, city officials defend the work. In both capitals, open gyms have been installed in public parks. Government schools have started using digital tools for classroom teaching. Public Wi-Fi zones have popped up in commercial areas, especially in winter capital.

These upgrades have created jobs in construction, IT, and small businesses that benefit from increased footfall.

“Hotels, taxis, even tea stalls-they're all seeing more people now,” said Irfan Malik, who manages a boutique guesthouse near Srinagar's Residency Road.“Clean spaces attract people. Simple as that.”

The bigger question is: who's going to maintain it?

Paved paths crack. Digital boards fail. Wi-Fi stops working. Public infrastructure needs upkeep, and that means trained personnel, regular budgets, and tight coordination between departments. That, officials admit, is the harder part.

“There's a lot of pressure to show fast results,” said a project engineer in Jammu, who has worked on multiple smart city contracts.“But systems fail if no one looks after them. We don't have enough trained staff to manage new tech.”

In some cases, the gap is already showing. Interactive kiosks in Srinagar's city center are frequently offline. Dust gathers on neglected solar panels. In Jammu, a repaired pedestrian bridge was damaged days after reopening.

But even with flaws, something has shifted.

The cities feel more open. They move a little smoother. More children are playing in public parks. More elders walk safely in the evenings. These are small signals. But they matter.

What's notable is that neither city has tried to erase its past. Old shrines in Jammu's Purani Mandi are being cleaned, not bulldozed. In Srinagar, heritage buildings along the river are being lit up, not covered in glass. That restraint-rare in Indian urban planning-might be one of the mission's big strengths.

A smart city, after all, isn't just about data points. It's about people getting to live better.

That means more than just apps and shiny facades. It means kids biking safely. It means a daily wager finding a clean toilet. It means a mother not standing in line all day for a birth certificate.

Srinagar and Jammu aren't finished. Not by a long shot. But they've started to move. And this time, they seem to be moving in the right direction.

• The author can be reached at [email protected]

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