The Raipur Municipal Corporation will implement the ‘Raipur City Smart Payment System’ under the Smart City Mission under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, officials informed.
The ‘Raipur City Smart Payment System’ comprises creation of ‘CitySmart Card’, mobile App and portal.
Notably, Smart city Mission was launched by the Central Government on June 25, 2015. Subsequently, Raipur was selected among 100 cities to be developed as Smart City in India due to various achievements, initiatives and all-inclusive approach, they informed.
Accordingly Raipur city had submitted “Smart City Proposal” (SCP) to Union Ministry of Urban Development with required consent of Government of Chhattisgarh and statutory authority of Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC).
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 within the city of Raipur.
On the other hand, the Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) is also constructing a state-of-art ‘Command and Control Center Building’ at Phase-1, North Block at Sector 19 of the new capital city, officials informed.
It may be recalled that a ‘Master System Integrator’ will manage the extraordinarily high-technology oriented ‘Naya Raipur Smart City System’.
The Naya Raipur Smart City System will comprise Smart Governance, City Surveillance, Intelligent Transport management System, Electricity and Water supply and City Command and Control Centre among others.
Notably, the Naya Raipur as a Smart City will leverage the collective intelligence created by connecting physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure to deliver a quantum improvement in the quality of life of local population, they informed.
Notably, the new capital city of Chhattisgarh is a ‘green field’ city and is planned to develop its infrastructure gradually in order to provide world class amenities and facilities to its residents and visitors.
NRDA has taken the next step in “Smart City’ development with plans now for ‘Information & Communication Technology” (ICT) enablement of infrastructure and citizen services, officials informed.
Notably, Naya Raipur is already among five other cities in the country chosen as ‘Demonstration Cities’ for the Centre’s ambitious Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP).
The final five cities participating as 'Demonstration Cities' under Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP) are — Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Mysore (Karnataka), Naya Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad (Maharashtra).
Detailed project profiles were prepared by all cities with the assistance of the SUTP Consultants and then endorsed by the SUTP Steering Committee to be included to SUTP as ‘City Demonstration Projects’, officials stated.
It plans of developing a project comprising IT-enabled systems to manage a host of utilities using state-of-art technology.
The design would comprise IT enabled land management system, city surveillance besides a host of other systems till now popular and being used only in the developed countries.
The other city management systems include intelligent lighting systems, pay and use parking systems, city guide map available through web browser, intelligent transport system, city level Wi-Fi touch screens across the city, display boards across the city for providing real-time information, emergency alert and crisis response systems, traffic re-routing applications based on real time traffic data.
It may be recalled that Naya Raipur has emerged in the country with the largest land bank of a mammoth 237 square kilometres (23,700 hectares).
The NRDA has plans of developing a ‘Transport Hub’ spread over an area of 161.9 hectares in the new capital city.
The hub would include setting up light Rail Transport System (lRTS) stations. The area being earmarked for the 'Transport Hub' would be 12.55 per cent of the total area of the new capital city, officials stated.
On the other hand, notably, the Chhattisgarh Government will also be utilising ‘Centralised Project Management Software System’ (CPMS) for automation of Project Monitoring, Controlling and Reporting task for key projects undertaken in the entire State.
The Government is investing significantly in the State to build physical Infrastructure -Highways, Bridges, Water & Electrical distribution system etc.
In order to closely monitor and control these major Infrastructure Projects from inception to closure, Government of Chhattisgarh wants to implement Centralised Project Management System.
Chhattisgarh Infotech and biotech Promotion Society (CHiPS), is the nodal agency of Department of Information Technology and Biotechnology, Government of Chhattisgarh in the State of Chhattisgarh to implement the software based monitoring project.
The Centralised project management software system would be used for monitoring work of major departments and agencies such as Chhattisgarh Road Development Corporation (CGRDC), Chhattisgarh State Power Development Corporation ltd (CSPDCl), Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA), Public Works Department (PWD) and Water Resources Department (WRD).
This apart, a Centralised Project Management Unit (CPMU) – Team of consultants would work as an interface between Secretariat and Government Implementing Departments and system integrators to ensure proper monitoring of the project works.
All the overhead telecom and cable TV wiring will disappear from Raipur’s skyline as per the ‘Raipur Smart City Mission’ plans , officials informed.
Terming the proposed plan as ’de-cluttering the skyline’ it talks about creating ‘integrated telecom masts’ and creating underground ducts for fibre optic cables.
It may be recalled that Raipur city has improved the quality of 'Smart City' plans by 25 per cent to finally find its place in the list of 13 cities chosen by the Central Government for development as a ‘smart city’.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh Government is also mulling over plans to mobilise additional financial resources through 14th Finance Commission recommendations for implementation of the AMRUT project in nine citiesof Chhattisgarh, officials stated.
The action plan drawn up by the Government has already prioritised proposed investment across cities as per principle of prioritisation of AMRUT. Investment had been broadly distributed across nine AMRUTcities.
Distribution of Investment is based on priority for providing 100 per cent universal coverage in primary thrust sectors.
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 current financial year.
The Central Government'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, officials 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.
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.
The Central Government recently 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 crore 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.
AMRUT project launched in June last year aims at ensuring water supply connections and sewer connections to all urban households in 500 missioncities besides supplying water at the norm of 135 litres per capita per day, on priority. Under this mission, construction of storm water drains, promotion of non-motorised urban transport, provision of parks and green spaces also will be supported.
The purpose of AMRUT is to ensure that every household has access to a tap with assured supply of water and a sewerage connection, increase in amenity value of cities by developing greenery and well maintained open spaces (parks) and reduce pollution by switching to public transport or constructing facilities for non-motorised transport (like walking and cycling).