Four govt schools all set to get 90 smart classrooms

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 25

With an aim to increase the learning capacity of students, four government schools will get 90 smart classrooms under the Smart City Mission. 

The tender process for the project, which will have interactive boards, 3D animations, e-content, computers, CCTV cameras, modern lighting and flooring, will be completed in the first week of July. 

A primary school in Sector 22, two senior secondary schools in Sector 35 and a senior secondary government school in Sector 43 will be readied as e-age schools.

“As many as 90 classrooms in these four government schools will be made smart. Once the tender process ends in the first week of July, we will start the work and it will take about six months. An amount of Rs 7 crore will be spent under the Smart City Mission,” NP Sharma, General Manager, Chandigarh Smart Cities Limited, told Chandigarh Tribune.

“It was implemented in Delhi schools and was quite successful. It increases the learning capacity of students. It will also increase the interest of students in studies. Many private schools already have it, but now government schools are acquiring it,” he said.  

Cycle-sharing system

Having failed several times to get firms on board for running the public bicycle-sharing system, the authorities may take up the job in their own hands.

Officials said they floated tenders for the purpose a couple of times, but it did not work out. “Sometimes, interested companies lay conditions which are not acceptable to. If it does not work this time, we will look at other options. Maybe, we will take it up on our own,” said NP Sharma.

Under the project, the plan is to have 5,000 bicycles, including 1000 e-bikes, fitted with the GPRS tracking system for 617 busy points in the city. One can take a bicycle from one point and drop it at the sharing point close to their destination. The sharing points will be Sector 17, Panjab University, Sukhna Lake, Rose Garden, PGI and bus stands among others.

Funds not spent

It seems the Chandigarh Smart City Mission is moving at a snail’s pace as of the Rs 400 crore sanctioned by the Centre, only Rs 20 crore has been spent in three years.

Smart City CEO KK Yadav said since these were not conventional projects, it was tough to find people to execute the work. 

Minister’s interaction

On the completion of three years of the launch of the Smart City Mission, Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, interacted with Smart City officers and the media from different cities from Delhi through video-conferencing. In Chandigarh, Smart City CEO and the GM, along with other officials and the media, attended the video-conferencing.  

E-age schools

• The tender process for the project, which will have interactive boards, 3D animations, e-content, computers, CCTV cameras, modern lighting and flooring, will be completed in the first week of July.
• A primary school in Sector 22, two senior secondary schools in Sector 35 and a senior secondary government school in Sector 43 will be readied as e-age schools.