Work on Smart City to begin in three months

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 11

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Varinder Kumar Sharma and Chief Executive Officer, Smart City, Girish Dyalan today said work on this ambitious program to give face lift to the city would begin within three months.

Presiding over a meeting to review the work on this project which is worth Rs 1,000 crore here at District Administrative Complex today, the DC said the blueprint of this ambitious project would be finalised within a few days with the active support and cooperation of every department. They also said that after the completion of concept note and feasibility surveys, the tenders for these projects would be floated within three months to start the work. The project would ensure complete transformation of the city for which minute planning was being done by the consultants appointed by the Government of India.

The complete overhaul of the city was on cards with this project. The city would have a unified command control room for all the emergency services like police, fire and others. Likewise, the project would also ensure intelligent traffic management system in the city with a special provision of e-challaning for which powerful cameras would be installed.

Public transport system would be further strengthened by introducing low-floor mini buses and the auto-rickshaws plying in the city would be run only on CNG. The proposal to provide subsidy or finance the CNG kits for the auto-rickshaws owners was also on cards. Similarly, traffic management would be done at critical junctions for which multi-storey parking, foot over bridges and other features would be introduced.

In the same manner, safety audit would be undertaken for the congested bazaars and areas of the city to minimise the incidents of fire. In order to check further depletion of groundwater in the city, it was also decided that the feasibility of using surface water from rivers would be examined besides the installation of rain water harvesting system, recharging of the wells and other features of water. The city would also have environment censors to keep a regular tab on the pollution level.

Burlton Park would be developed as a sports hub with a convertible stadium on the pattern of the recently inaugurated stadium in Ahmedabad. Besides housing 17 indoor games, this stadium would also have hotel, convention centres, auditorium and other facilities to ensure its uses round the year. The government schools would be converted into smart schools with smart classrooms in the city.

The work to identify places in government buildings to install solar panels and rain water harvesting system would also start soon. Soliciting active support and cooperation of officials, they said the project could not materialise without their active participation.