‘Smart’ projects worth ₹300 crore cleared

Private vendors will also fund the capital expenditure of a few projects, says an official

As many as 17 projects, including cycle sharing, parking management and solar-powered buildings, estimated at ₹300 crore were cleared for administrative sanction by the Board of Directors of Chennai Smart City Limited on Tuesday.

“Many of the projects will be implemented using funds from the Smart City Mission. Some of the projects, such as parking management and cycle sharing systems, will have capex funding from private vendors,” said an official.

As part of the projects, the Corporation is set to generate more than 5 MW of solar power using facilities to be commissioned in 1,900 buildings at a cost of ₹25 crore. The civic body will also develop a traffic park near Napier Bridge to create awareness among children about traffic in the city.

5,000 cycles in 378 locations

“As many as 5,000 bicycles will be stationed at 378 locations for the cycle sharing system. Metro Rail stations, bus stands and suburban stations will be linked,” said an official.

“The parking management system will cover 12,047 parking slots,” the official said. The parking charges will be increased to ₹20 per hour. Roads with more demand for parking will have rates as high as ₹40 per hour.

Owing to a fund crunch, the civic body has decided to use smart city funds to develop 5.5 km of missing links in stormwater drains in T. Nagar at an estimated cost of ₹9.37 crore. The city will also get automatic streetlights in zones such as Teynampet at a cost of ₹3.04 crore and Kodambakkam at ₹7.98 crore.

Chennai Metrowater will be able to figure out the demand and supply of water using smart meters for 12,000 bulk consumers at ₹9.5 crore and electromagnetic flow metres in 251 locations across the city.

The integrated command and control system for the city will have environmental sensors and other modern equipment estimated at ₹210 crore. The previous meetings cleared proposal such as smart roads and parks.