Dream of an efficient city!

Ever thought about an efficient system for our own home city, Delhi? We, Delhiites, face a lot of problems every day and many of those are self-generated. By the term ‘efficient city’, I mean a system with highly reduced wastage.
The biggest problems that everyone in Delhi is aware of are:
1. Energy
2. Water
3. Traffic
Coming on to Energy first, electricity cuts are a normal part of our lives. But will this shortage continue to persist? Well, Yes! At least cheap electricity surely will be scarce. Most of the electricity supply of Delhi is through coal and diesel power plants. Rising prices of fossil fuels soon may force these power plants to be scrapped. Then we will have to look for alternatives.
But shouldn’t we begin our search now or shall we wait for our homes to go dark?
I think nuclear power option is fantastic, but then disposal of its waste will bring further problems. Also, nuclear power does not seem politically viable!
So, we are left with natural resources like wind and solar energy. For a city like Delhi, where would you find huge pieces of land where arrays of wind turbines can be installed? So this possibility can be ruled out. Solar energy, according to me, has a great potential of being the ultimate energy source but the initial investment requirement makes it unsuitable for our city!
So, the only two options are left with us:
1. Bio fuel
2. Conservation
Bio fuel seems the best alternate source. The reason is that being densely populated; we have such a huge concentration of raw material generators walking around. What can be better than utilizing your own waste?
By doing this, we can also solve the garbage disposal problem. Also, we don’t need to pollute Yamuna as our waste is precious! We must separate our garbage for kitchen waste and recyclable material from rest of junk. The organic waste can be used for production of bio gas.
Conservation is the next best thing. We have seen so many photographs of street lights switched on during the day. Instead of having a manual system, we can automate the street lights. Though it needs investment, but very soon break even will be reached as wastage costs more! A simple system running on an inexpensive microcontroller with an LDR (Light Detecting Resistor) can control the street lights for up to 3-5km. So, using a few thousand automatic systems, we can save precious electricity. Though this does not mean we have the license to waste that extra power at our home. We still need to be careful at using electricity at home. We must not forget it is a chain. It ultimately gets back to you indirectly. If we waste electricity, commercial electricity will be scarce. Thus alternate costlier power will be required to run the factories and so the finished products will further be costly!
Coming to another solution, we know there is a lot of construction going on for residential complexes. I feel it is best to make such efficient designs so that these buildings consume lesser power. The design should be such that the houses are enough illuminated through the day by natural light. During construction itself, central solar water heater should be installed along with rain water harvesting system.
Coming on to water shortage, we know that we get our water supply from ground water and neighboring states. Rain water is what we have not been able to effectively utilize as of now. Though green area in Delhi has been increased many folds by the fantastic efforts of government and various NGOs, still it is not enough. Rain water harvesting system should be installed on all public and private buildings. At least the new buildings should have a compulsion for that.
In past few years, many swimming pools have opened up showing signs of development and rise in standards of middle class. The water from the pools needs to be changed every week. All this water should be treated properly.
Last, but not the least, comes traffic. Traffic seems to be on top of the priority list for the government and rightly so. Despite rickshaws, auto rickshaws, DTC buses, blue line buses, low floor buses, metro, metro feeder buses and radio taxis, public transport caters only those who cannot afford private vehicles. Though over time, metro has gained popularity, still the load of private vehicles on road is killing the traffic system.
Government has made fantastic efforts for making ring road red light free, BRT came up and now monorail is being planned. We recently had talks about a smart traffic system. This is what I think is the need of the hour. We Delhiites burn fuel worth millions each day on red lights and traffic jams. We over speed on empty stretches and then slow down too much in heavy traffic, reducing the mileage of our vehicles. Consider a traffic system in which, if you travel with speed exactly as the limit, you will find all traffic lights green. Thus maintain a constant speed, minimize breaking and maximize fuel efficiency. This way the wastage of fuel to some extent can be reduced along with the pollution. This will also improve road safety as over speeding is discouraged. If a driver over speeds, he will eventually find the next traffic light red. This system practically works in many countries of the world. Though Delhi is different, but we must plan a similar system to manage traffic properly.

If we dream of making Delhi, a world class city, we must make efforts to increase its efficiency. Every one has to make efforts and contribute. The government, the NGOs, the environmentalists, the technologists and most importantly every common Delhiite must cooperate as a single unit in this direction. Remember “Boond Boond se hi Sagar banta hai” (Ocean is created drop by drop)!