Sheikh Musaib · 3rd+
· Edited·
Harapan Was Smart — Srinagar Just Got the Makeup
There is something almost unbelievable about urban planning in India today.
Around 4,500 years ago, the people of Mohenjo-daro were building a city with planned streets, organised residential areas, wells and an impressive drainage system.
They had no IAS officers.
No Smart City Mission.
No consultants with expensive PowerPoint presentations.
No smartphones.
No GPS.
No smart traffic cameras.
And certainly no giant boards saying “SMART CITY.”
Yet they somehow understood one very basic principle:
A city has to work before it has to look beautiful.
Fast-forward several thousand years and welcome to modern Srinagar.
We have engineers, architects, planners, administrators, consultants, government departments, municipal authorities and a Ministry responsible for urban development.
We have technology.
We have cameras.
We have smart systems.
We have beautiful redevelopment projects.
And, of course, we have the magical words:
“SRINAGAR SMART CITY.” But then it rains. And suddenly the smart city appears to need a swimming certificate. Recent heavy rainfall once again exposed waterlogging problems in Srinagar, including Lal Chowk. The episode led to renewed criticism of the city's drainage and Smart City planning.
So one cannot help asking:
What exactly became “smart”?
Its Lal Chowk Makeup🤣
The most amusing part is the transformation of selected areas around Lal Chowk.
New paving.
New façades.
New sidewalks.
New lighting.
New beautification.
A fresh coat of urban makeup.
It is almost like dressing up one part of the city for a wedding and then declaring the entire family beautiful.
“Look! The city is smart!”
Meanwhile, go a little beyond the polished corridors and the old problems are still waiting:
Traffic.
Parking.
Drainage.
Waterlogging.
Footpath problems.
Encroachments.
Poor pedestrian movement.
Infrastructure gaps.
Even official material acknowledges that Smart City interventions were limited to particular corridors and could not replace comprehensive city-wide drainage improvements.
Mohenjo-daro vs Modern Planning
Mohenjo-daro did not need to paint itself “smart.”
Its planning speaks for itself.
The ancient city had organised streets and drainage because its planners understood that infrastructure is more important than decoration.
Modern Srinagar sometimes seems to have reversed the order:
First make it beautiful.
Then worry about whether it works.
That is not smart planning.
That is urban makeup.
And calling it a Smart City does not magically make it one.
Where Are the Planners?
This is where questions should be directed—not at one particular officer, but at the entire planning and administrative system.
What did the planners study before redesigning these areas?
Were local residents, shopkeepers, pedestrians, transport workers and ordinary citizens properly consulted?
Were drainage and traffic treated as the first priorities?
Was the project designed around Srinagar's unique geography, climate, wetlands, waterways and historic urban fabric? Or was too much attention given to making selected areas look modern?
These are legitimate questions for the administrators, planners, consultants, Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Srinagar Smart City authorities and the ministries responsible for urban development.
After all, public money deserves public accountability.
Smart City or Smart Marketing?
The official vision of Srinagar Smart City speaks about an eco-friendly, resilient and vibrant city that improves quality of life.
That is an excellent vision.
But a vision is not the same thing as execution.
A smart city should mean:
Smart drainage.
Smart traffic.
Smart parking.
Smart waste management.
Smart public transport.
Smart pedestrian planning.
Smart flood management.
Smart heritage conservation.
Not simply:
Smart tiles + smart lights + smart signboards = Smart City.
The Ancient City Has the Last Laugh Perhaps the funniest comparison is this:
Mohenjo-daro:
“Here is our drainage system.”
Modern Smart City:
“Here is our dewatering pump.”
Mohenjo-daro:
“We planned the streets.”
Modern Smart City:
“We are managing the traffic jam.”
Mohenjo-daro:
“We built for the city.”
Modern Smart City:
“We beautified the selected corridor.”
And finally:
Mohenjo-daro: “We are 4,500 years old.”
Srinagar Smart City:
“Please wait… project under review.”
The joke is obviously exaggerated—but the lesson is serious.Srinagar Deserves Better, does not need to become a copy of another modern city. It needs to become a better version of Srinagar.
Its lakes, rivers, wetlands, historic neighbourhoods, traditional architecture and unique geography should be the foundation of its planning.
The city deserves infrastructure that works in ordinary weather and extreme weather—not just infrastructure that looks impressive in inauguration photographs.
Mohenjo-daro reminds us of something modern planners sometimes forget:
A city is not smart because you call it smart.
A city is smart when ordinary people can live, walk, travel and work in it without fighting the infrastructure every day.
So perhaps the real shame is not that Srinagar is still developing.
The real shame would be spending enormous amounts of public money and still failing to learn the basic lessons of urban planning that an ancient civilisation understood thousands of years ago.
Mohenjo-daro had no Smart City signboard.
It didn't need one.
Its planning was the signboard.