Dubai's Smart Strategy - Could Indian Cities Learn From Its Plans?

Home to the man-made splendour of Palm Jumeirah and the simply stunning Burj Khalifa, it is fair to say that Dubai has developed massively in recent decades to become one of the most impressive cities on the planet.

Indeed, its stellar reputation has had a major impact, with the city’s population rising to more than 3.2 million in the second quarter of 2019. Furthermore, Gulf News reports that the number of visitors to Dubai reached almost 16 million in 2018, with India being the top source of arrivals in the area.

However, rather than simply sitting back and celebrating such figures, work is continuing in the city to make it an even more attractive and exciting place to live and visit. Central to this is the Smart Dubai 2021 strategy, an exciting vision aimed at making it one of the happiest places on earth.

Becoming a world leader

The Smart Dubai initiative was created under the guidance of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum with the aim of ensuring the area embraces new technologies to become a world-leading city by 2021.

Under the plans, it is hoped that Dubai can become a city where all of its resources are completely optimised for maximum efficiency and services are perfectly integrated into the daily lives of both residents and those who visit the region.

Intriguingly, the project – which was originally established in celebration of the United Arab Emirates’ golden jubilee – is using the happiness of residents as a key benchmark throughout the process. But what does it actually entail and what could cities in India ultimately learn from it?

Key objectives

According to the Smart Dubai 2021 website, the agenda is a city-wide approach based around four key goals – creating an efficient, seamless, safe, and personalised place to live.

It hopes to achieve this across six objectives, which include creating a smart liveable city that has full ICT enablement through its critical infrastructure. It also wants to develop a globally competitive economy through the use of innovation, as well as an interconnected society with accessible social services for everything from education to healthcare. Other objectives include developing smooth transport, a clean environment and a connected, paperless government.

If successful, this project could have a massive impact on Dubai in so many ways. For example, increasing happiness and the quality of life in the city may have a knock-on effect in other areas, with more people looking to move there. Dubai is already a popular destination for expats, with millions of people from the around the world flocking to the city to take advantage of its world-class amenities, as listed throughout the area guides and property listings offered by real-estate portal Bayut. With increased ICT infrastructure, Dubai can only become a more intriguing prospect for expats and locals alike.

The smartest place on earth

All in all, it is fair to say that Smart Dubai 2021 could have major consequences for Dubai and may even set a new global standard on city living that other locations – including those in India – will have to follow.

The next couple of years will undoubtedly be fascinating and it will be exciting to see whether the city really can achieve its aim of being the smartest – and happiest – place on the planet.

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