The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has undertaken a two-year research project to ascertain how Bengaluru can truly become a smart city.

The Indo-UK project — 'Understanding Indian Urban Governance Reform: A comparative analysis of the Smart City Mission reforms and their impact on sustainable urban mobility' — was launched by the IISc in July.

The project is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). It will look at four case study sites: Bengaluru, Jaipur, Ranchi and Bhubaneshwar.

The project’s focus area is the smart cities mission in India — what it aims to achieve, why it was set up and what it is changing on the ground.

Prof Ashish Verma of the IISc, who is a member of the project team, told DH that the project aims to find out where Bengaluru stands in terms of urban governance, whether there is a will and thinking towards the smart city direction, and the gaps in becoming a smart city.