Smart City mess

Nitin Jain, Charanjit Singh Teja, Aakanksha N Bhardwaj & Deepkamal Kaur

The ‘Smart City’ tag generates a sense of hope and critical assessment in equal measure. In Punjab, the four cities selected under the Centre’s Smart City Mission (SCM) are drawing attention for all the wrong reasons. On paper, the progress report in Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Sultanpur Lodhi sounds encouraging. On the ground, the reality stares you in the face. Potholed roads, rampant encroachments, heaps of garbage, overflowing open drains, non-functional streetlights and freely roaming stray animals continue to mark their dominant presence. As residents point to the lack of any visible change in the civic infrastructure despite the huge expenditure, a natural corollary is the political blame game.

Alleging large-scale “unmindful” misutilisation of funds, the ruling AAP MLAs have sought a probe by either the CBI or the Vigilance Bureau into the “multi-million scam” and “strict punishment against the officials and the politicians involved”. The SCM funds were either “misutilised in a single constituency or misappropriated during the previous Congress regime”, they claim.

The Mission was conceptualised a decade back to develop sustainable and citizen-friendly ‘smart cities’ — aiming to reduce air pollution, congestion and ensure security. In 2015, 100 cities across the country were selected, including Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar. The Central and state governments were to share the expenditure. In 2019, Sultanpur Lodhi was added to the list.

As per the latest rankings of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ludhiana ranks the first among the ‘smart cities’ in Punjab and 49th in India in terms of the project work that’s been undertaken.

The Ludhiana Smart City Limited (LSCL) claims that 61 projects worth Rs 688.81 crore have been completed, another 13 worth Rs 207.1 crore are being executed, and nine projects amounting to Rs 28.1 crore are in the tendering stage.

Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora, who recently reviewed the progress of the projects in a meeting with LSCL Chief Executive Officer Aaditya Dachalwal, said funds amounting to Rs 959.25 crore — Rs 490-crore Central share and Rs 469.25-crore state share — had been received, of which Rs 934.56 crore had been utilised.

“We are committed to turn Ludhiana, having a large migrant population, into a Smart City,” Arora said. According to Dachalwal, “The Smart City concept is meant for area-based development, for which the West Assembly segment was chosen. In the West segment also, only a partial area was picked up for undertaking development and demonstration to other parts of the city. Besides spending 25 per cent of the total funds under the SCM on Buddha Nullah rejuvenation, streetlights, an integrated command control centre, e-challaning system, CCTV cameras and sports infrastructure have been created for the city. Those raising objections are oblivious of the fact that the SCM was never meant for the entire city.”

In Amritsar, of the total 35 projects proposed by the Amritsar Smart City Limited (ASCL), 29 projects worth Rs 142.84 crore have been completed in the past eight years, but the city residents do not find any change. They continue to face problems of traffic congestion, poor road infrastructure, sewer choking, water contamination, air pollution and street crime.

The government had allocated Rs 912 crore with a goal to improve liveability, providing a clean environment and improved core infrastructure.

There are six major pending projects on which the ASCL plans to spend Rs 745 crore. A major chunk is being utilised for a 24x7 canal-based water supply project. An amount of Rs 384 crore is earmarked for the construction and operation of a water treatment plant and distribution system. The integrated command and control centre, entailing an expenditure of Rs 105 crore, it is being claimed, would provide an effective surveillance and intelligent traffic management system. The project has jumped several deadlines.

The project of redevelopment of the 7.4-km stretch of the outer circular road of the Walled City is still incomplete. Residents point out that “it looks like an ordinary road even after spending Rs 120 crore”.

After laying the foundation stone, the skywalk project, costing Rs 60 crore, outside Gurdwara Shaheedan Sahib has been scrapped due to non-viability and now radial roads leading to Golden Temple would be beautified.

Gulpreet Singh Aulakh, CEO, ASCL, said, “The main funding is being used in the water supply project, which is underway. The change would be visible to the residents soon. We have got extension from the government to plan more projects under the SCM. The multi-level parking at Kairon market would provide a major relief from traffic congestion.”

Congress MP Gurjit Singh Aujla, too, has demanded a high-level probe. “I have written to the Centre and filed proceedings in the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee to hold a Vigilance Bureau inquiry into the projects implemented under the SCM. The planning was faulty and works were awarded to contractors who are hand in glove with officials. Embezzlement and misuse of funds should be investigated.”

According to BJP leader Shwait Malik, “Projects have been delayed as the state government does not give matching grants on time. The implementing agency is the state government and several projects need a high-level inquiry.”

In Jalandhar, despite the expenditure of Rs 860 crore under the SCM, the residents are still grappling with the non-delivery of basic civic amenities. While major projects like surface water, bio-mining and smart roads have not been completed, work on projects like the sports hub worth Rs 77.77 crore has not yet started.

One of the biggest projects under the SCM was that of surface water, estimated to cost Rs 400 crore. Commencing in 2020, the project is set to miss the deadline of March 2025. The project aims to change the drinking water supply source from groundwater to surface water so as to conserve groundwater resources and provide 24x7 canal-based clean and treated water supply. According to officials, it may take another year for the project to get completed.

Bio-mining was another much-touted project worth Rs 34 crore that has suffered several obstacles. The contract was terminated and another company has been entrusted with the task. In 2017, the project was planned to manage and process the waste at the Wariana dump yard; heaps of garbage at the site have only grown.

Jalandhar West MLA Mohinder Bhagat blames the Congress for “ruining the project that could have changed Jalandhar’s fate”. According to Jalandhar Congress MP Charanjit Singh Channi, the “Smart City concept is a gone case. The BJP has dumped this project”.

It was two months ahead of Guru Nanak’s 550th Parkash Purb in November 2019 that Sultanpur Lodhi was included under the SCM. The holy town, spread over 10 square km and having a population of 20,000, got the first instalment of Rs 27.11 crore of the total proposed grant of Rs 135.5 crore. Most of this grant has gone on the four-laning of roads to Didwindi and Mundi villages from Sultanpur Lodhi.

Five years on, the civic amenities in the city have gone from bad to worse. All main roads were dug up as storm water sewer pipes were laid more than a year back. The roads have not been re-laid since and had to be filled and covered with inter-locking tiles to enable the Nagar Kirtan to pass to the eight historical gurdwaras in the town.

MLA Rana Partap Singh says that neither the state nor the Centre is doing anything for the holy town. “What else do we expect when the Municipal Council has not even appointed a consultant for monitoring the Smart City projects?” Former MLA Navtej Cheema says the biggest project that was planned under the SCM was ‘Pind Babe Nanak Da’. “It was to come up on 90 acres, and the proposal now is for 40 acres,” he says. Reacting to the criticism, Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar Panchal says he is regularly reviewing the projects and has asked officials “to expedite work”.

The Centre claims that as of November, 90 per cent of the projects under the Smart City Mission have been completed and the remaining are in advanced stages of completion. The SCM has been extended till March. In Punjab, scepticism runs high on the final outcomes, and not without reason.