The Urbanization is most foremost and contemporary process prevalent throughout the world especially in developing countries like India. The growth of urbanization has been dramatic in the past decade. It is expected that 70 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. This rate has increased the pressure for adjusting the actual infrastructures, and investing in new ones, to support the flow of goods and people, as well as to minimize the associated impact related to the environmental degradation, quality of life, etc. To manage this issue, an increasing number of cities around the world are adopting the concept of “smart cities”. To sustain the abrupt growth rate of economy and urbanization and to alleviate the problems arising due to the growth, an integrated approach and sustainable strategy is required. The comprehensive and smart planning is one such emerging strategy to tackle and alleviate these problems. This paper attempts to examine and evaluate the need for the development and planning of smart city projects in the country in line with various ongoing projects and the government’s proposal for development of the 100 smart cities throughout the nation. The analysis indicates that the cities are intensifying and new cities are being formed mainly by transformation and growth from villages and towns due to rapid urbanization. But these cities lack basic infrastructural services and other amenities due to various reasons ranging from lack in administrative and service delivery mechanism to lack of proper planning vision, investment, management, and to some extent changing lifestyle, etc. Some green field development like GIFT, Lavasa, Kochi Smart city and Nano City has started but are far from satisfactory to cater to the demands of the sustainable cities and urban centres, hence there is an urgent need to plan for both green and brown field sustainable urban developments in form of Eco city or smart city or similar projects to bring out a balanced urban growth and development.
Key-words: Smart cities, Urban Planning, Logistics, Sustainable supply chains.
