The Bilaspur Municipal Corporation (BMC) is making preparations to participate in the ‘Smart Cities Challenge- Round III’ of the Union Ministry of Urban Development, officials informed.
Notably, in June this year , a meeting of State-level high-powered Steering Committee formed for Smart City Mission for Bilaspur city was chaired by Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand.
According to official information, the estimated cost of Bilaspur Smart City project is Rs 4,399 crore.
During the meeting, the Bilaspur smart city proposal was approved and was recommended to be sent to the Central government for approval.
For successful execution of the Mission, about 40 memorandum of understandings (MoUs) have been signed with different departments/institutions for mutual cooperation that are in the limits of Bilaspur Municipal Corporation, he added.
For planned development of Bilaspur city, a city vision, strategic plan, ABD area, pan city plan, implementation plan and proposal for broad financial plan was also prepared.
Notably , the Central government last year had 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 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.