Smart City Anniversary: Ludhiana on way to becoming smart city

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, June 23

Eight years after inception, Ludhiana is close to becoming a smart city as envisaged under the Smart City Mission (SCM) of the Union Government, the government has claimed.

Ludhiana was among 100 cities in the country and three in Punjab, which was selected under the SCM to be developed as a smart city in the first round of the selection by the Union Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) on June 25, 2015, officials have said.

The progress summary prepared by the Ludhiana Smart City Limited (LSCL), a copy of which is available with The Tribune, revealed that as many as 48 projects worth Rs 159.86 crore have already been completed while 21 more projects costing Rs 770.14 crore have been put under execution and are under various stages of progress.

SMART CITY TOP PRIORITY: MP

Ludhiana smart city project is one of our topmost priorities and we have pulled all stops to ensure completion of all under progress projects within the stipulated time frame. Sanjeev Arora, RAJYA SABHA MP

Of the 21 under execution projects, the work on 16 projects worth Rs 580.35 crore has already been awarded and is under progress, while the remaining five projects worth Rs 189.79 crore have been tendered out.

With this, a total of 69 projects worth Rs 930 crore are being undertaken by the LSCL to develop Ludhiana, the industrial and business hub of the North, as a smart city.

Rajya Sabha MP from Ludhiana, Sanjeev Arora, reviewed the progress of the smart city mission here on Friday and took stock of the projects completed, under execution and those tendered out.

The Municipal Corporation (MC) Commissioner, Dr Shena Aggarwal, who is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the LSCL, told The Tribune, that the projects completed so far included LED streetlighting at the cost of Rs 13.39 crore, setting up of Municipal Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) at Rs 36.73 crore, development of smart school classrooms in government schools at Rs 6.26 crore, waterfront development and landscaping beautification along Sidhwan Canal worth Rs 5.18 crore, façade light illumination of flyover at Sidhwan Canal at Rs 2.38 crore, carcass utilization plant at Rs 8.58 crore, procurement of sewer cleaning machines at Rs 4.44 crore, discharge of 200 cusecs fresh water into Buddha Nullah at Rs 4.28 crore, installation of digital and analogue wayfinding and signages worth Rs 5.25 crore, installation of rooftop solar panels on existing buildings at Rs 6.54 crore, prefabricated toilet blocks worth Rs 3.1 crore, fabrication of firefighting vehicles on suitable chasis at Rs 6.45 crore, construction of government senior secondary schools in Ward 13 at Rs 3.34 crore, construction of top floor of existing multi-level car parking at DAC complex at Rs 4.75 crore, construction and commissioning masonry toilet blocks worth Rs 3.4 crore, construction of obligatory span on RoB and RuB at Pakhowal road at Rs 45 crore, beautification and refurbishment of mini rose garden at Rs 3.49 crore, and several parks were developed at EWS colony at the cost of Rs 2.58 crore.

Similarly, the projects under execution included retrofitting of Sarabha Nagar market worth Rs 50.24 crore, 24x7 surface drinking water supply project at the cost of Rs 71.16 crore, construction of RoB and RuB at Pakhowal road railway crossing worth Rs 86.47 crore, Phase II of waterfront development and landscaping on Sidhwan Canal front from Dugri Chowk to Pakhowal Road at Rs 5.06 crore, rejuvenation and landscaping of Buddha Nullah at Rs 250 crore, installation of chain link fencing of 14-km stretch along Buddha Nullah at Rs 13.39 crore, construction and demolition of waste management plant at Rs 2.2 crore, compactors worth Rs 13.57 crore, refurbishment of badminton courts at Shastri Hall at Rs 2.08 crore, upgradation of leisure valley near MC Zone D office at Rs 2.77 crore, refurbishment of ESI Hospital Road at Rs 2.45 crore, development of civil works for waste management plant at Rs 2.69 crore, installation of vertical garden along Sidhwan Canal on Southern Bypass at Rs 2.18 crore and bioremediation of legacy waste at Jamalpur dump worth Rs 27.17 crore.

Rs 1000-cr corpus

The selected cities were granted Rs 1,000 crore each, on the equal sharing basis of Rs 500 crore each by the Centre and State, which can be leveraged for getting additional resources for funding the project implementation/ execution under the SCM.

MAIN GOALS

• Rediscover the bicycle capital of the world and align it with ‘Make in India’
• Enhance the health and wellness of citizens
• Reduce traffic congestion
• Clean and green city
• Ensure public safety
• Enable e-governance

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