Jalandhar to be among 100 smart cities of country

Rachna Khaira

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 6

If sources are to be believed, Jalandhar has been chosen among the 100 cities across the country to be developed as a smart city. With Amritsar and Ludhiana already shortlisted for the smart city plan, the state government had recently pitched in Jalandhar also to be included in the plan.

Though the city may not have much historical or industrial significance as Amritsar and Ludhiana, it stands third in the state by fulfilling the mandatory criterion of having a population of over 10 lakh.

Also, the MC has already began the process to hire Geographic Information System (GIS) specialist, town planning specialist and a project engineering specialist for the purpose.

CM meets union minister

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had met Union Urban Development and Housing Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and urged him to include 10 cities, including Jalandhar, under the smart city scheme.

City will get Rs60 lakh under plan

With Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announcing a whopping Rs 7,060 crore for the development of 100 smart cities in the country in this year’s Budget on Saturday, the concept that has long been popular but not enthusiastically implemented has been given the much required sense of legitimacy and push to be turned into a reality.

Though a grant of Rs 60 lakh may be too less to make the dwindling infrastructure of the city to assemble, still the city will usher into a new era of a global living.

How will ‘Smart Jalandhar’ look like

The maximum travel time will be reduced to 15 minutes anywhere in the city. Water availability will be around 135 litres per capita per day. Also, 95 per cent of the houses will have retail shopping centers, parks, primary schools and recreational areas within 400 metres only. In general, the smart city will develop around eight basic parameters: governance, energy, homes, buildings, mobility, infrastructure, technology, healthcare and citizen

Major hurdles gone!

The Union Government had to pick its 100 from 4,041 towns and cities and the Ministry of Urban Development chose a consultative approach to decide on the criteria. In January this year, it organised a workshop with states and announced a challenge programme for the selection of the city. There was a two-stage selection process to choose the top 100 cities under the project.

In the first stage, the selection at this stage was based on vision, progress under the Swachh Bharat Mission, payments of salaries to MC staff on time, information and grievance redress mechanisms as also an e-news letter. As competition intensified, the government looked deeper into issues such as self-financing abilities of the cities and service levels.

The Jalandhar MC was not receiving its due VAT share and cess on liquor and electricity is in financial doldrums for the past two years. The state government had also not released devolution funds to the MC since 2012. A majority of the project works carried out by the MC were under cloud due to the alleged corruption and low-quality material used in them. It has even failed to pay regular salaries to its employees and has whopping amounts pending of various government contractors.

Challenges ahead

Now, the most important requirement to give the city a smart look will be on part of residents, entrepreneurs and visitors who would be required to be actively involved in energy saving and implementation of new technologies and also to make residential, commercial and public spaces sustainable with the help of technology. Residents living in interior slum areas may have to be rehabilitated somewhere else for a little while.

No doubt, if the smart city project in the NRI-dominated Jalandhar becomes successful; it will change the state’s economy. With SAD bouncing back to its old form in the recently held municipal polls, the move will add an extra bounce to the Akalis heading for the Assembly polls to be held in 2017.

What authorities say

Mayor Sunil Jyoti says Jalandhar was one of the top three cities in the state and requires an upgrade of its civic infrastructure. During the process, the role of the MC as well as residents will go hand in hand. I am hopeful that it will soon bear a much cleaner and greener look.