I, on my part, thanked Union Minister Ms Uma Bharati for agreeing in principle to sanction our Project for Gangasagar (Project Cost Rs 361 cr) : the project report was submitted yesterday. I also spoke of the possibility of approaching NRIs at France and Holland for Chandannagar and Bandel. I also mentioned about taking up projects near Belur Math and Dakshineswar. I added that besides engineering interventions, we would need riverbank population to be involved and treat them as stakeholders. Union Minister seemed to agree in principle in her speech.
A selfie on my mobile:
I also met Secretary Ministry of Urban Development at Nirman Bhavan. I formally handed him over a copy of the concept plan on Smart City for New Town as drawn up by NISG (National Institute of Smart Governance). I also invited him to visit the state.
The Union Cabinet today cleared 100 Smart City Projects and the old housing projects initiated by the previous government also got cleared-
ReplyDeletehttp://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/cabinet-approves-proposal-to-set-up-100-smart-cities-115042900207_1.html
"The urban centres which will be developed as smart cities will be selected through a 'City Challenge' competition later this year. States will propose the names of cities, and those will be graded on many parameters like creditworthiness, power supply, water, revenue generation, municipal planning and partnerships they can form. The final selection will be done through a process of elimination.
During the first week of this month, Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu had said cities would be selected only by merit, not on political considerations. Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York, is expected to help in the selection process."
Bloomberg is a big time environmentalist. He would pick cities which are doing their best in "going green". More initiatives like solar panels,LED street lighting, rainwater harvesting would certainly help.
DeleteNew Town, with its development in last few years, would surely qualify in the city challenge competition.
ReplyDeleteThe question is how to get more number of cities in West Bengal qualify for that?
Can we have some of the "green" initiatives that Sudipta mentioned in the other "proposed smart cities" of West Bengal like ADDA, SJDA, Jaigaon and Gangasagar? At least rooftop solar panels, LED Street lingtning, rainwater harvesting, mechanised cleaning and smart waste collection efforts can start act as the starting point.
Also individual concept plans for other cities are also needed and we need your magic touch for coordinating with all the development authorities in the state, bring them to a common platform, get some of the projects rolling and qualify these cities in City Challenge Competition.
Huge Central Govt funds are going to come in future for these smart cities and West Bengal cannot afford to lose out in the race by having only New Town qualify.