Punjab is all set to submit smart city proposals for Amritsar, ludhiana and Jalandhar to the Central Government for competing in State-II City Challenge under Smart City Mission.
The State’s progress in Smart City Mission, AMRUT, HRIDAY, Swachchh Bharat, Solid Waste Management and other schemes was reviewed in detail by the Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal while chairing Board of Directors meeting of Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company (PMIDC).
Detailed presentations regarding smart city proposals of Amritsar, ludhiana and Jalandhar were given by the global consultants finalised for this work during the meeting.
“For Amritsar city, the proposal is being finalized by consortium of consultants comprising M/s Jones lang laSalle, Tata Consulting Engineer and Townland (HK). Smart City Proposals have also been prepared by M/s AECOM India/IBM for ludhiana and M/s IIDC/UMTC/BDP (UK) for Jalandhar as per the guidelines of Smart City Mission project,” said the government spokesperson.
He said that all the smart city proposal components include area development of a specific area of the city, pan city development of urban infrastructure like water supply, sewerage, implementation framework, financial models, institutional framework and impact assessment.
A review meeting-cum-workshop was also held with Mayors, Commissioners and Consultants on November 9 to access the status of completed activity of citizen, or stakeholder consultation.
Kaushal asked PMIDC managing director to finalize the city level special purpose vehicles to implement the schemes effectively and also submit the final proposals to the Centre on time.
Under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban (AMRUT) scheme, Centre has approved 16 cities of Punjab having population more than one lakh for which total Rs 3,000 crores will be spent in next five years.
It was informed that M/s WAPCOS has been engaged as consultant for preparation of State level Improvement Plan (SlIP) and State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) for these 16 cities covered under the scheme. Kaushal asked the PMIDC to complete SlIP report by December 9 and SAAP report by December 15 after completion of meeting with stakeholders including citizens, local MPs and other public representatives.
Under Swachh Bharat Mission (urban), Rs 9.31 crore has been released to urban local bodies for release to 46,948 beneficiaries. 176 community toilets sites and 318 public toilet sites have been identified.
The Chief Secretary has asked the PMIDC CEO to complete the annual target as defined under the scheme on time.