Having failed to make its mark in the first round of selection process of the Centre’s ambitious Smart City programme, Ranchi is preparing its Smart City Proposal (SCP) anew for the next round of selection challenge.
Ranked 84th by global experts among 97 contending cities in Round 1 of Smart City programme, Ranchi could not even make it past cities like Bhagalpur (65th), Rourkela (46th) and Kanpur (41st) with a score of 44.04 per cent. The only saving grace was that the State Capital has been enlisted in the cities to be upgraded in fast-track.
Meant to spread urban transformation all over the nation, one city each from 23 States and Union Territories have been asked to submit their upgraded proposals by April 15, 2016. One from these cities will be selected for funding on accelerated basis in 2016-17 on the verdict of a panel of experts affiliated with renowned institutions like World Bank, National Institute of Urban Affairs, london School of Economics and others.
The new SCP being drafted by Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) will try to focus on and better the aspects which led to the city’s disqualification in the first round, stated a RMC official.
“As of now, we are identifying the requisite parameters for a smart city which we were lacking in and improve our performance in those fields. With a limited time we have on our hands, we will aim to compose the best SCP we can. We are trying our best to become the city which is selected from this roster of 24 cities,” said Bidya Nand Sharma Pankaj, the newly appointed RMC Assistant Municipal Commissioner.
The competition will be tough though, with high scoring cities like Warangal (54.79 per cent) and Chandigarh (54.73 per cent) also competing to come on top among the cities to be developed in fast-track. RMC functionaries cited selection of greenfield development as the underlying theme a reason by behind Ranchi not qualifying for the first round of Smart City project.
On submitting the SCP, the cities were supposed to select one from the three models – retrofitting (adding to the existing urban structure), redevelopment (replacing the old infrastructure with new one) and greenfield development (constructing on presently vacant areas).
“Forming our last proposal, we chose greenfield development as our model, which failed to show the socio-economic status of Ranchi and our efforts to improve it. This instigated questions from the panel about what we will be doing for developing the city,” stated RMC light Incharge Nagendra Dubey, who has been given the responsibility of drafting the SCP.
None of the cities which chose greenfield development only could make it to the top 20, Dubey said. But the urban local body has learned from its mistakes of the past, it would seem.
“We will be going with the combination of greenfield development and retrofitting. Introducing the latter will help us deal with the socio-economic scenario in Ranchi,” Dubey said.
RMC will also try to follow the lead of 20 selected cities; the new proposal will be drafted after analysing the ones which qualified. “We will tally the proposal sent by Bhubaneswar, the highest ranking city in the project, for guidance in forming one of our own,” stated RMC Assistant Municipal Commissioner.