Wait for Central grants gets longer

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 17

The Smart City project of the Central Government, which was expected to be launched by the end of this month, seems to be a distant dream as nothing is on the cards to launch the project before January 2015 at the national level. With this, hopes of the state government and the MC authorities seem to have dashed as they had expected good grants from the Central Government under the project.

With the best service deliveries to be provided under the project, the Central Government planned to come up with 100 such cities in the country. Ludhiana was best appropriation option under the ‘Smart City’ category, while Amritsar was being considered to be sent under the ‘Heritage City’ category.

An official with the Municipal Corporation (MC), on the condition of anonymity, said the authorities had already prepared a Detailed Project Report (DPR) on it.

“As we all know that till date deliberations are being done, discussions are being held to bring the project. These are the initial stages. The project was expected to be launched by December 25, but it is late. Though the state government had asked the MC to get the DPR made from consultants, it has been prepared by the in-house team. The charges quoted by the consultants were exorbitant, so it was decided to prepare it in-house,” said the official.

Commenting on the project, Pradeep Aggarwal, MC Commissioner, said: “The MC is ready with the DPR. In case it is required, it will immediately be submitted”.

On being asked whether it will be helpful in strengthening the financial position of the MC or not, the Commissioner said if grants were released by the Central Government, more development work in the city could be accomplished.

Speaking on the empty coffers of the state government, the spokesperson for Congress Councillors said the Punjab Government as well as the Municipal Corporation here had no money to run the projects.

“The grant by the Central Government remains the only option for survival in that case,” said Mehta.