The Faridabad Smart City Limited has utilised around eight per cent of the total funds received by the Central and State governments under the Smart Cities Mission so far, reveals an RTI reply. Faridabad is one of the two cities in Haryana shortlisted under the mission, besides Karnal.
Faridabad, which had figured among the list of 13 Fast Track Smart Cities announced in May 2016, has received ₹196 crore from the Union government and ₹194 from the Haryana government, but it has utilised only ₹33.23 crore so far, including ₹4.64 under administrative and other expenses (A&OE) funds.
The information was furnished by the Faridabad Smart City Limited in February this year in reply to an RTI application by activist P.P. Kapoor.
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In 2016, the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad had submitted a Smart City Proposal (SCP) projecting a total expenditure of ₹2,600.01 crore to Union Ministry of Urban Development. However, the total cost of the development works under the Faridabad Smart City Project now is ₹2,458.58 crore, stated the RTI reply.
Poor utilisation
Mr. Kapoor, who is based in Haryana’s Panipat, said that Faridabad was among the fewer cities to receive huge grants under the mission, but the authorities had miserably failed to utilise the funds.
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“With the authorities spending a meagre 1.3% of the total of the cost of the project in three years, it may take several decades for Faridabad to become a smart city at this pace,” argued Mr. Kapoor.
He pointed out that utilisation of funds was a major concern for the cities under the mission, besides poor allocation of funds.
“Karnal too has received ₹103-crore grant, including ₹53 crore from the Union government, but only four projects worth ₹12.52 crore have been completed so far. Another ₹1.45 crore have been utilised under A&OE for competing. The total cost of the projects under the mission is ₹1,211 crore. In this case as well, the total expenditure is around 1.15 % of the total cost of the projects,” said Mr. Kapoor.
Civic infrastructure
Among other things, the Smart City Project (SCP) for Faridabad includes Non-Motorised Transport (NMT), Intelligent Traffic Management System, which comprises synchronised traffic signals for optimum traffic flow, intelligent car parking system, smart signages, smart auto and taxi stands and public bike sharing system.
The smart civic infrastructure, including decentralised Sewage Treatment Plants for reuse of waste water for Badkhal Lake revival and waste-water recycling, rainwater harvesting, automated online water quality monitoring system, Wi-Fi, underground cabling, solar rooftops and LED street lighting, are also part of the SCP.
No tenders yet
As of now, the projects for e-toilets, development of Badkhal Road, beautification of five intersections of National Highway-44 and e-rickshaw stands are under way, but the tenders are yet to be floated for installation of Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations and Internet Bandwidth Connectivity.
A Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been approved for Intra City Bus Service project with the cost of ₹464 crore.