Ending all speculations, the name of Rourkela had been cleared for the Smart City project in the second phase by the Union Urban Development Ministry on September 20 last. But surprisingly adequate follow-up actions were not taken so far.
No Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) or Project Monitoring Team have been set up to conceptualise, plan and execute projects. As the existing city infrastructure needs to be upgraded to meet the Smart City level for which designs have already been approved, authorities need to expedite preparation of the detailed project reports for the same.
Smart road, smart water distribution system, smart power supply system and integrated control and command center for all modules need to be developed for which initiatives should be taken sooner.
As almost 60 per cent of finances for the projects are to be sourced from outside, municipal bonds should be floated to raise revenues. The State Government should take help of transaction advisors appointed by the Central Government for the same purpose. More revenue generation options should be explored like property tax, advertisement tax and value capture financing which in return could enhance creditworthiness of the civic bodies paving the way for easier finance.
But the fact is so far the Government has not appointed the CEO for the Smart City which is vital for the execution of the projects. Besides, the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) and Rourkela Development Authority (RDA) have to play important roles. But surprisingly, many senior level officer posts are lying vacant in both the organisations for many months and the State Government is not showing any interest to fill them. Even though in the high level meeting held on September 24 at Bhubaneswar it was decided to post 23 officers with different capacities and five more contractual employees in RMC and RDA and during his visit to the city on October 20, the Urban Development Secretary had also assured for early posting of the officers but no practical actions were taken so far. That is why it is alleged that the State Government has been intentionally neglecting Rourkela as the State Government’s mindset is not in favour of Rourkela in Smart City list. That is why despite the Union Government’s guidelines to send two names for the Smart City and in the preliminary scrutiny rounds, the State had recommended three more names besides Rourkela to make a political competition. Due to this, the prospect of Rourkela was in uncertainty tillSeptember 20. This is not the first case the State Government is showing apathy to Rourkela. Before this, the apathy was shown in case of ESIC Medical College and the IIM.
Now, it is demanded that the Government should appoint the CEO for Rourkela Smart City and fill other posts in RMC and RDA soon.