The development of the Boulevard and the Grand Canal that splits the French Quarter and the Tamil Quarter, which combine heritage and tourism appeal, are key components of the third-time successful Puducherry Smart City Proposal.
Puducherry had been the first off the block in coming up with a smart city aspirational document when the programme was launched in 2015, but the proposal fell through largely because of its advocacy of a greenfield development model.
Several lessons from that failure had gone into the government thought process as the successful project it submitted in the third round of smart city challenge reflected a balance of area-based development and pan city solutions.
LAD Secretary P. Jawahar told The Hindu that the proposal largely had given thrust to retrofitting and pan city solutions. Around six square km, including the boulevard and adjoining slum and underdeveloped areas in Puducherry municipality, would be taken up under the area-based development. The earmarking of the main boulevard and its surrounding areas for retrofitting upgrade has come on the basis of consultations with key stakeholders.
Key components
Some key components that will come up include redevelopment of the Grand Canal and a city wide command and control infrastructure. The bus stand would be developed into a state-of-the-art bus port. A special purpose vehicle (SPV) would be formed for implementation of the proposal, Mr. Jawahar added.
A three-km stretch of the Grand Canal is to be taken up for beautification and flanked with pedestrian pathways. Non-motorised transport, a public transit corridor, an intelligent traffic management, and a bicycle sharing network are the other features of the proposal, the officials added.
