The Bilaspur Municipal Corporation (BMC) will hire a Project Management Consultant (PMC) for assisting the Bilaspur Smart City limited to design, develop, manage and also implement Smart City projects under Smart City Mission in the city, officials informed.
Notably, Chhattisgarh Government will also soon take a massive greening drive in the city by planting one lakh saplings under the Smart City plan, officials informed.
Bilaspur has recently been included in Centre’s ‘Smart City Mission’. The Government plans to invest Rs 8,000 crore in developing Bilaspur into a Smart City.
The State Urban Administration and Development Department will also soon take up the integrated solid waste management project planned for the city.
The project would be taken up and operated under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model on Design, Build , Finance, Operate and Transfer basis, officials stated.
Notably, Raipur and Bilaspur cities in Chhattisgarh which have been included among 100 other cities in the country for ‘Smart Cities’ Mission would also be developed as ‘green cities’.
The Union Ministry of Urban Development will be utilising the services of the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), a unit of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to develop energy efficient cities, officials stated.
The State Urban Development Agency (SUDA) in Chhattisgarh is taking up project development under Centre's 'Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation' (AMRUT) project.
A total of nine cities selected under AMRUT are set to receive a major infrastructural facelift in Chhattisgarh.
The cities chosen under the AMRUT Mission are—Raipur, Durg, Bhilai, Rajnandgaon, Bilaspur, Korba, Raigarh, Ambikapur and Jagdalpur.
Notably, the first high-level meeting of the management committee formed under AMRUT Mission chaired by Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand was held in Naya Raipur earlier to discuss ways to develop infrastructure and bring about improvement in citizen services in various cities of Chhattisgarh.
Notably , the Centre has also approved Raipur and Bilaspur to be developed as ‘Solar cities’ in Chhattisgarh.
So far, 55 existing cities in 27 States/UTs are being developed as solar cities in the country under ‘Development of Solar Cities Programme', senior government officials stated.
In fact, Raipur city was the only city among nine other cities in the country which was chosen by the Centre among the ‘Pilot Solar Cities’ for implementation of its ambitious ‘Development of Solar Cities Programme’ in 2013-14,as per the 2013-14 annual report of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for 2013-14.
The other eight cities chosen for 'Pilot Solar Cities' programmes were-Rajkot, Faridabad, Shimla, Thane, Shirdi, Aizwal, Amritsar and Agartala.
As per the report, the development of the ‘Solar Cities Programme’ aims at minimum 10 per cent reduction in the projected demand of conventional energy at the end of five years, the report stated.
The aforesaid objectives are to be achieved through a combination of energy efficient measures and enhancing supply from renewable energy sources, it stated.
The Ministry assists the municipal corporations and the urban local bodies in preparation of a Master Plan for increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy supply in the city, setting up institutional arrangements for the implementation of the Master Plan and the awareness generation and capacity building activities. The Centre had set the target of supporting 60 cities/towns for development as ‘solar/green cities’.
Raipur and Bilaspur are among the top 20 mission cities that made good use of website 'MyGov.in' for citizen participation in preparation of Smart City plans, officials stated.
The enthusiasm about Smart City Plans under preparation resulted in huge citizen participation with over 15 lakh citizens from urban areas contributing to the same with their views and suggestions using ‘MyGov.in’ across the country.
SUDA will has taken up a project for augmentation and reorganization of water supply scheme under AMRUT Mission in the city.
The Central Government had recently sanctioned proposals worth Rs 2200 crore for drinking water facility, sewerage, afforestation and children's parks. The civic authorities had completed 24 of the 28 projects in the urban limits. The project covers Digital India programme also, officials informed.
The municipal authorities had collected 90 per cent of the water cess which is a record in itself. It may be mentioned here that Chhattisgarh State had bagged several national awards in the year 2016, they informed.
Notably, as many as 27 water supply projects to be taken up across Chhattisgarh under Centre’s AMRUT project would involve an expenditure of 440.95 crore during the last financial year.
The Centre’s funding component in the project would be Rs 212.13 crore while the Chhattisgarh would contribute Rs 137.08 crore with Urban local Bodies (UlBs) share being Rs 91.38 crore, offcials stated.
Overall the Mission Thrust areas under AMRUT Project would be— Water supply, Sewerage and Septage Management, Storm Water Drain, Pedestrian, Non Motorised and Public Transport Facilities, Parking Space, Green Spaces, Park and Recreation centres.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh government has approved Rs 13 crore for 89 developmental works to be undertaken by Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC).A sum of Rs 10 crore has been approved by the State government for various wards of RMC including drain construction, road widening, electrification and pipeline extension, according to an official press release.
Notably, the Central government had released the first installment of Rs 55.29 crore out of the approved Rs 573.40 crore for State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) under AMRUT project for the last financial year in Chhattisgarh.
The Union Ministry of Urban Development has already released Central Assistance of Rs 1,062.27 crore to 13 States as first installment under AMRUT project for the last financial year, officials stated.
This is a part of total Central Assistance of Rs 5,311.38 crore committed to 13 States for which the Ministry has approved Atal Mission Action Plans for 2015-16 entailing total investment of Rs 11,671.76 cr in 286 cities in these states.