Srinagar: Anything, but Smart |
At 7 am in the morning, in one of Srinagar’s upmarket residential localities, a doctor prepares to leave for her private clinic. She does not step out alone. Walking beside her is her domestic help, carrying a large wooden stick in Ninja style. It is her only protection against the dozen stray dogs that prowl the lanes like a pack of wolves. Factoid: With 38 stray dogs per 1,000 people, Srinagar has the highest canine density in India. Bengaluru, with half that number, is second.”
Welcome to the smart city of Srinagar. The smart city of Srinagar is “sustainable” too, just in case you thought otherwise. On the Bund, opposite the iconic Convent school, cows with official looking yellow plastic tags pinched to their ear amble along the newly planted kerbside trees. They pause to dispense natural manure at will, if not on demand. These stray cows, cattle and dogs forage freely among the piles of garbage which adds its own layer to the urban tableau. Heaps of waste lie strewn along roadsides and in open drains, contributed daily by residents who have grown accustomed to the sight. The result is an environment that feels neither smart nor sustainable; it is just neglected.The contrast between the glossy “Smart City” branding and the daily grind of street dogs, free-roaming cattle, chaotic traffic, garbage, and haphazard urban growth is too stark to be ignored. This is the lived reality of Srinagar in 2026, a decade after being declared a Smart City. The disconnect is not incidental.
The Smart City Mission, by design, favoured area-based development and visible infrastructure projects. It produced results where they could be photographed and showcased. It was less effective in strengthening the mundane, daily functions of municipal governance: controlling stray animals, enforcing parking rules, clearing garbage, and ensuring basic traffic discipline is maintained. The “smart” label works better as marketing for certain showcase areas than as a description of comprehensive urban management.
It was during the PDP-BJP government that the Union government included Srinagar under India’s Smart Cities Mission in 2015. By early 2026,........