The Government of Puducherry has submitted its ‘Smart City Proposal’ to the Ministry of Urban Development for the ‘City Challenge’ round which will select the top 20 cities that would receive the first tranche of funding for the ambitious mission.
Keeping in view the opinion of the citizens, the proposed smart city would be developed as a ‘Green Field’ project in Karasur - Sedarapet region which falls within the Puducherry Planning Area, along with two pan-city initiatives of City Surveillance and public safety and Smart Solid Waste Management.
The estimated cost of the Smart City proposal is around Rs. 5,661 crores.
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The vision of the proposed ‘Smart City’ is to make Oulgaret - Puducherry a vibrant, enduring, and green economic and inclusive growth city with good governance using smart applications.
In the recently held citizens' poll, a vast majority of voters endorsed the Greenfield model of Smart City development.
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The ‘Oulgaret Municipality’ has been selected from among the 100 cities across the country for the smart city project.
The "Smart City Proposal" was prepared through the consultancy, Mahindra Consulting Engineers Chennai, based on the aspirations of the citizens and stakeholder consultations.
Committe had approved proposal
A high-powered steering committee headed by Chief Secretary Manoj Parida had on December 10, approved the Smart City proposal for submission to the Ministry.
According to the Government, the proposal has been formulated ensuring convergence with several schemes of Govt of India such as Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Swachh Bharat Mission, Digital India, Safe City Project, Integrated Power Development Scheme and Solar Mission.
The Smart City Proposal has also factored in the interest evinced by Agence Francaise de Développement (AFD) Of French Government for partnering with the smart city initiatives.
Oulgaret Municipality is spread over 36.7 sq km comprising 37 wards with a population of over three lakh.
The Sedarapet-Karasur contiguous belt has abundant land resources — Sedarapet encompassing 11,354 acres and Karasur about 665 acres. This region also has other advantages such as access to the National Highway to Chennai and the State Highway to Tindivanam, its contiguous characteristic and potential to absorb future migration and attract investments.
The Government has exuded confidence of Oulgaret making it to the first list of 20 cities that would receive a funding of Rs. 500 crore over a period of five years.
Appeal
The Chief Minister N. Rangasamy has appealed to the Government to consider Puducherry in the list of cities included for the AMRUT scheme.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Urban Development stated that Smart City Plans had been submitted for 15 cities from six States along with Puducherry ahead of the December 15 deadline for submissions of smart city proposals.
The 98 cities that have been included in the Smart City Mission have a total population of about 13 crore which accounts for 35 per cent of total urban population in the country.
Further to put emphasis on participation of citizen in preparation of smart city proposals, 1.81 cr citizens in mission cities have contributed to the same which accounts for 14 per cent of urban population in these cities, which is statistically considered as good.
Citizen participation
According to the Ministry, MyGov.in has been widely used for promoting citizen participation with about 25 lakh citizens contributing to formulation of proposals. On the receipt of all the Smart City Proposals, expected by Tuesday, the Ministry of Urban Development will set in motion the second state of ‘City Challenge Competition’.
Under this, proposals will be evaluated based on implementation framework (30 weightage), result orientation (20 per ccnt), citizen participation (16 per cent), smartness of pan city Solutions (10 per cent), strategy based on SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of city (10 per cent), city vision and goals (5 per cent), quality of city profiling including identification of Key Performance Indicators (5 per cent) and processes followed (4 per cent).
It will be developed as a ‘Green Field’ project in the
Karasur-Sedarapet region