Three cities of Chhattisgarh are in the list of cities for measuring the ‘liveability’ index of the country to be prepared by Union Ministry of Urban Development and Urban Poverty Alleviation soon.
The cities are — Raipur, Bilaspur and Naya Raipur, officials informed.
The Central Government along with State and local Governments is implementing several flagship urban missions for improving various aspects of urban development in Indian cities. An underlying goal of these initiatives is to make Indian cities more ‘liveable’. This will not only providing good quality core infrastructure and services, but also developing cities with ample opportunities for work, entertainment and cultural activities, improved social infrastructure and economic opportunities.
In order to do this through a structured approach it is important to create a common minimum framework, which cities can use to assess their ‘liveability’ and measure their progress over time. In this context Ministry of Urban Development has developed a set of ‘liveability Standards of Cities’. These will act as a guiding framework for cities to chart their pathway towards liveability and result in a systematic improvement.
A total of 79 different standards are proposed across 15 different categories. The Ministry proposes to conduct an ‘Annual Assessment of liveability in the various standards and develop a ‘City liveability Index’ of the liveability standards in selected cities.
A total of 116 Cities have been selected. Shortlisting process is being undertaken to identify a panel of consultants who will be eligible for selection to do assessment of liveability standards in selected cities.
Notably, it may be recalled that the investment for Raipur’s Urban Plaza at Ganj Mandi of Rs 983 crore being made under Smart City project is one of the impactful projects being taken up in the first batch of 20 smart cities in the country, the Central Government has informed.
The Raipur Markets Development Project at Rs 1,026 crores and Bilaspur Markets Development Project at costs of Rs 1,241 crore are other key impactful projects, it informed.
Some of the other major PPP smart city projects in the country are: Bhubaneswar (Affordable housing-Rs 840 cr), Amritsar (Urban space development –Rs 1,028 cr), Coimbattore (Water supply -Rs 557 cr), Warangal, Telangana (Bus stand- Rs 611 cr), Shimla (Tourism and recreation infrastructure- Rs 898 cr), Aligarh (Smart multi-level parking- Rs 289 cr), Bengaluru (Tourism and recreation infrastructure- Rs 234 cr) and Pune (Electrical buses- Rs 170 cr).
Notably, the Central Government has asked the States to focus on early implementation of smart city projects that have a visible and transformative impact in the lives of citizens in identified smart cities.
It may be recalled that Raipur would be put under a ‘retrofitting plan’ covering 500 acres of land to provide facilities not present so far under the Smart City Mission , officials informed.
Notably, Raipur city was selected among 100 cities to be developed as smart city in India due to various achievements, initiatives and all-inclusive approach. Accordingly Raipur city had submitted “Smart City Proposal” (SCP) for Raipur City to Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India with required consent of Government of Chhattisgarh and statutory authority of Raipur Smart City.
The city of Raipur has been selected to be developed into a smart city under the fast track mode of first phase of the Smart Cities Mission.
The Smart City Proposal of Raipur includes the smart city solutions which involve the use of technology, information and data to improve infrastructure and services with in the city of Raipur (The Smart Solutions Projects).
Raipur City is to promote Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) with dedicated pedestrianized corridors and enhanced ‘walk ability’ options.
This was stated in the ‘Smart City Proposal’ for Raipur submitted during Stage II of the ‘Smart City Challenge’ of India Smart City Mission of the Union Ministry of Urban Development.
The NMT mode had been focussed to bring pollution levels further down in the city, officials informed.
The citizens of Raipur foresee themselves living in environmentally clean, socially cohesive, sustainable, using renewable energy sources, utilising scientific water and waste management, employingsmart transportationand a safe city with a responsive ‘Smart Governance Framework’, the document mentioned.
The Union Ministry of Urban Development has taken up ‘Transit Oriented Development’ (TOD) in Naya Raipur besides Ahmedabad, Delhi (Kakardooma), Nagpur and Navi Mumbai, the Central Government has informed.
The Ministry would like this to be expanded to other cities as well, it informed.
To effectively address the emerging urbanisation challenges, the Union Ministry of Urban Development has come out with a multi-pronged policy framework to promote living close to mass urban transit corridors, the Ministry informed.
This new initiative seeks to promote TOD which enables people to live within walking or cycling distance from transit corridors like the Metros, Monorail and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors, currently being taken up on a large scale.
The Ministry has formulated a ‘National Transit Oriented Development Policy’. This policy seeks to enhance the depth of understanding of States and UTs on TOD as a viable solution to many of the challenges like haphazard urban growth and sprawl, mobility, rapidly rising private vehicles on roads, pollution, housing choices etc.
This new urban design and planning in the form of TOD, is being incentivised by the Union Ministry under two more initiatives viz, Metro Policy and Green Urban Mobility Scheme which also will be discussed with States and UTS for taking them on board.
Under TOD, city densification will be promoted along mass transit corridors through vertical construction by substantially enhancing FARs (Floor Area Ratio) backed by promotion of Non-motorised Transport Infrastructure for walking and cycling to transport stations, development of street networks in the influence zone of transit corridors, multi-modal integration, effective first and last mile connectivity through feeder services to enable people access public transit in 5 to 10 minutes from home and work places.
Dense living along transit corridors besides resulting in enhanced living and travel experience, will also improve ridership of mass transit systems. If properly executed, TOD could emerge as a means of financing mass transit project, for which the demand is growing.
TOD promotes integration of land use planning with transportation and infrastructure development to avoid long distance travel in cities through compact development as against the present pattern of unplanned and haphazard urban growth.
Under the new Metro Policy, TOD has been mandatory while under Green Urban Mobility Scheme, TOD has been made an essential reform and is given priority for receiving central assistance.
The Ministry’s initiative comes in the context of over 300 km of Metro lines being operational in seven cities, another 600 kms of metro line projects under construction in 12 cities and over 500 km projects under consideration.