Taj city needs to push the refresh button
Residents have seen Agra getting schemes before without any action on the ground
The city, which was once the capital of the Mughal Empire, had to wait for the third smart city list to make it to the prestigious club of urban hubs in line for a modern makeover.
The initial enthusiasm after the selection has given way to cynicism among the residents who have seen Agra getting schemes without any follow-up action on the ground in the past. For instance, the city was the hub of the Taj Trapezium Zone for which huge funds were released but not much change was witnessed.
OFFICIAL TAKE
Agra Nagar Nigam officials say the work for Smart City is on. “The special purpose vehicle (SPV) responsible for implementation of development plans has been constituted. Named Agra Smart City Limited, it will function as a company. The commissioner of Agra division will be chairman of the company and the municipal commissioner will officiate as the chief executive officer of the company.
The Special Purpose Vehicle will plan, approve, implement, manage and supervise the development projects. It has already held two board meetings.
“We are in the process of evaluating the technical bids submitted by various project management agencies, one of which will be selected after evaluation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) submitted by them. First, we are evaluating the plans outlined by the agencies in a competition. Thereafter, the financial aspect will be looked into before finalising one of them,” said an Agra Nagar Nigam official.
“The makeover plans will be implemented through a total project cost of Rs 2250 crore out of which Rs 1000 crore will be shared by the central and state governments. The remaining Rs 1250 crore will come from convergence sources, including various ongoing development projects,” he said.
AREA BASED PLAN
The work for Agra Smart City project is divided in two categories: retrofitting of the area based plan and the PAN City initiative. The area spread over 2250 acre from the historic Jama Masjid to the Fatehabad Road covering Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and the old city has been selected for the area based plan.
A Nagar Nigam official said retrofitting in the area based plan will have two dozen features aimed at improving the quality of life of residents of the area which comprises a major part of old Agra too. The amenities to be provided include solar energy, CCTV, parking arrangement, parks, sewage, drainage, drinking water, underground wiring, rainwater harvesting, besides other steps to make life better for people here.
The retrofitting of this area, spread over 2250 acres, will cover seven wards of the Agra Nagar Nigam and will affect 114,000 people under the Smart City Project. According to an estimate, a major component of Rs 1,699 crore is for the area based project with the remaining amount for the PAN City initiative, including solid waste management and upgrading urban transport.
PAN CITY INITIATIVE
The PAN City initiative will include solid waste management and urban transportation. Doorto-door to waste collection and management is the main component of solid waste management.
The initiative has begun from the Tajganj area. A private agency has been working there since June 5. “Under the Pan City initiative, we plan to segregate waste and have a mechanism to manufacture manure from garbage collected from households,” said RK Singh, an official. The urban transport plan will focus on automatic signaling, installation of CCTV cameras, smart parking system and modern buses. All these measures are aimed at ridding the city of frequent traffic jams.