Allahabad rejoices
Joy and jubilation marked the announcement of Allahabad’s inclusion in the list of cities to be developed as smart cities. Citizens gathered in large numbers at various crossings to celebrate the news. Locals joined BJP workers at many city crossings, including at Subhash Crossing, to celebrate the occasion.
Joy and jubilation marked the announcement of Allahabad’s inclusion in the list of cities to be developed as smart cities. Citizens gathered in large numbers at various important crossings to celebrate as the news which spread like a wildfire in the social media.
Locals joined BJP workers at many city crossings, including at Subhash Crossing, to celebrate the occasion. They danced to the beat of drums, burst firecrackers and distributed sweets.
On two earlier occasions, Allahabad had missed the bus and people were very disappointed. “We look forward to having great improvement in the traffic management system which is going from bad to worse,” said Neeta Srivastava, former professor of Allahabad University’s Zoology department.
“Sandwiched on three sides by rivers and faced with a rapidly growing population, the city needs an effective plan for traffic movement which it will get once it becomes a smart city,” prof Srivastava added.
Students of a particular computer institute could be seen bursting crackers and distributing sweets near the Collectorate campus. “It is a welcome step because telecommunication services will improve which will lead to better health care management, better e-governance and better solid waste management using RFID techniques,” said Sanjaya Kala, former secretary of the Computer Society of India.
“With e-governance, more transparency and accountability will come and this will be boon in disguise for the citizens of Allahabad,” Kala said adding, “Land and revenue records thus will be easily available.”
Allahabad city’s first citizen mayor Abhilasha Gupta also expressed happiness over the city finally making it to the list. “I congratulate the people of Allahabad and call upon them to extend full cooperation in this ambitious mission,” she added.
Allahabad’s municipal commissioner Harikesh Chaurasia also expressed his happiness and expressed confidence that the project will fulfil the dreams and expectation of the people of Allahabad, who had waited for this moment for a long time.
Under the Smart City Misison, 24-hour watrer and electricity has been envisaged for the whole city with efficient public transport system, free wi-fi in different localities, 10 per cent power needs through solar energy, traffic management system aided by computers and smart control room among others.
For the mission, the city has been divided in to three zones. Zone-I (Central) for ‘Re-densification’ includes Mumfordganj, New Katra, Katra (part), Dwarikapuri, Police Line, Lok Sewa Aayog crossing (533 acre), Zone-2 (East) for ‘Retrofitment’ includes Katra (Part), old Katra, Colonelganj, Allenganj, Prayag railway station (west side) and Allahabad University (701 acre) besides Zone-3 (West) for ‘Open Spaces and Institutional Area’ including Civil Lines, Chandrasekhar Azad Park, Sumitranandan Pant Park (673 acre).
ALIGARH OVERJOYED
ALIGARH: Citizens are jubilant over the inclusion of Aligarh in the new list of Smart City released by the centre.
The latest list was declared by union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu. The citizens now hope that the roads, health services and other basic infrastructure of the city would be improved.
As many as 30 cities across the country have been included in the new list. Only three cities of Uttar Pradesh namely Aligarh, Allahabad and Jhansi are in the list. Now on national level, 90 cities have been included by Central government in the list of smart cities.
City municipal commissioner Santosh Sharma said, “After receiving second rank under Swachh Bharat campaign, this is a big achievement for us. People have worked hard to be included in the list. Now, Aligarh will receive funds which will help us in developing basic facilities and infrastructure.”