Govt to include PRTS in reworked smart city plan

Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 2

The Uttarakhand government intends to include the personal rapid transit system (PRTS) in the reworked draft of the smart city project planned for Dehradun city to improve traffic conditions. It had earlier ignored the needs of people living within the limits of the Municipal Corporation.

Officials say the Dehradun city failed to find a place in the first twenty cities shortlisted by the Central government for the smart city project as there was little to show in terms of projects being planned for the greater convenience of the people already living in the city.

“We feel that enough focus was not given to the city facilities that we had planned for making Dehradun a smart city. Hence we will definitely include the PRTS project in the reworked project that would ease traffic congestion. Our smart city project did not envisage an efficient public transport system, ring roads and e-governance initiatives under brown field development that were taken into account to select cities,” said Meenakshi Sundaram, Nodal Officer, smart city project.

Further, a workshop will be held in New Delhi next week in which cities that have been left out would be given tips on improving the project description.

The PRTS project in Dehradun is proposed to provide computerised cab facilities (without driver) from the ISBT to the Sai Temple in Rajpur, thereby covering a distance of 20 km and having 19 stoppages.

The plan also did not focus on setting up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that had to be created for implementing the smart city project. It would have been an added advantage, if a framework for creating SPV was also undertaken in concurrence with the Dehradun Municipal Corporation by the state government.

For example, Bhubaneshwar that emerged on top of the list of smart cities intends to develop, design, finance, implement and monitor the smart city project by the SPV formed by the state government. But the smart city project of Dehradun did not mention about the SPV and the role of Dehradun Municipal Corporation as the leading partner in the entity.