Dehradun — The Capital of Uttarakhand — may slip out of the first list of the smart cities as the State Government is yet to firm up the blueprint for the ambitious project. As the hiccups still blocking things in the form of land acquisition, it is unlikely that the blueprint would be firmed up soon.
Against the backdrop of the workers of the tea estates which are slated to be taken over by the State Government for the smart city project, remaining on the stir, Garhwal commissioner has convened a meeting with the owners of the tea estates — to be affected by the project on two consecutive days — Thursday and Friday. But the stalemate is yet to be resolved with the landowners having expressed their inability to give their consent to the process of land acquisition. Talking to The Pioneer, Garhwal commissioner and project chairman CS Napalchayal said on Friday that they had met and talked to the tea estate owners for two days. “Perhaps, we would sit again on Saturday,” he said.
Notably, the Union government has selected 98 places, including Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand for building smart cities across the country.
Despite the State government officials putting up all efforts to prepare the final Detail Project Report (DPR) of the upcoming smart city project and a consultant being selected to draw up the blueprint of the proposal, things are not progressing with the land acquisition facing roadblocks.
As per the initial plan formulated, each of the selected cities was asked to submit a plan by January 2016.
later, the plan was revised and it was decided as per the revised plan that the first phase of the cities and towns to be taken up for the project would be decided on the basis of DPRs submitted by the first 20 such places by December 15.
The deadline inching closer, things seem to be moving at a snail’s pace with the sensitive issue of land acquisition remaining unresolved.