The State Government will hire a Project Management Consultant for assisting Bilaspur Smart City limited (BSCl) for designing, developing, managing and implementing Smart City Projects Under Smart City Mission in Bilaspur, officials informed.
The Government will also soon take a massive greening drive in the city by planting one lakh saplings under the Smart City plan, officials informed.
Notably, 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.
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 soon take up a project for augmentation and reorganization of water supply scheme under AMRUT Mission in the city.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh government is getting a
Detailed Project Report (DPR) prepared for implementation of AMRUT project in the State.
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).
Notably, 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
Besides these, around Rs 2.50 crore has been approved for setting up a world class gym in the vacant space at International Swimming Pool at GE road besides other facilities.
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 current 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 current 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.
The Ministry has so far cleared a total of 939 projects for 286 cities with most of them related to water supply and sewerage network services.
Notably, the Central Government has released a sum of Rs 196 crore for implementation of Smart City projects for Raipurcity, the Central Government has informed.
The Smart Cities Mission was launched on June 25, 2015 for development of 100 cities as Smart Cities. So far, 90 cities (20 cities in Round 1 in January, 2016, 13 cities in fast track round in May, 2016, 27 cities in Round 2 in September, 2016 and 30 cities in Round 3 in June, 2017) have been selected for development as Smart Cities under the Mission.
In terms of Smart Cities Mission Statement & Guidelines, the Central Government will provide financial support of Rs. 500 crore to each selected Smart City. An equal amount, on a matching basis, will have to be provided by State Governments/Urban local Body.
Since the launch of the Mission (25.06.2015) and till date, total Rs. 9718.20 crore has been released by Government of India to Cities under Smart Cities Mission.
Based on the shortlisting done by the States/UTs, 98 potential Smart Cities were selected in August 2015 to participate in All India City Challenge. later on, on the basis of requests received from States, 12 new potential Smart Cities (left out capital cities and equal scoring cities) were also included in the list. Presently, no proposal is under consideration in this Ministry to include more cities in this list.
Raipur would be put under a ‘retrofitting plan’ covering 500 acres of land to provide facilities not present so far under theSmart 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 SmartCities 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-Motorized 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, utilizing scientific water and waste management, employing smart transportation and 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 urbanization 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’ which will be discussed with the States and Union Territories at a National Workshop on Urban Development to be held on Tuesday next week.
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 incentivized 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.
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.
The Ministry has supported BRTS projects in 12 cities which are under different stages of progress and eight more cities are set to take up BRT projects. Mass Rail Transit System of 380 km length is being taken up in Delhi.
Transit Oriented Development will be financed by channelizing a part of increases in property values resulting from investments in transit corridors through Betterment levies and Value Capture Financing tools. Increased private sector participation will result in economic development and employment generation.