THE CHANGES THAT THE CITY MIGHT SEE
URBAN TRANSPORTATION Present status
Despite being a tourist destination with the Taj Mahal, Agra lacks proper traffic management. The city reels under acute traffic pressure with even flyovers on the Delhi-Kanpur by-pass failing to ease the congestion at Bhagwan Talkies, Sultanganj or Water Works crossings where flyover is yet to be completely operational.
Agra will have metro rail and the Yogi Adityanath government has allocated funds for it in its first budget. Most of the city buses in the 125-strong fleet are not plying due to lack of space on roads.
The city’s lifeline, Mahatma Gandhi Road, needs to be widened as the ban on auto rickshaws has failed to ease bottlenecks.
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION
Smart City would bring in the concept of ICT with display board informing commuters about the jam that they might face at next crossing. Major crossings of the city are expected to be linked a with circuit system for effective management of traffic.
The ICT will manage the signalling at crossings with Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras placed at major crossing of the city.
Officials say the stress will be more on a smarter mode of transportation in place of big buses.
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
The city of Agra generates about 750 tonnes of garbage in a day which is managed by trucks collecting this refuse and finally disposing it at a dump yard on the outskirts of the city at Kuberpur. The Nagar Nigam officials claim that there are 200 such trucks but their condition is not good.
Residents have been making private arrangements for garbage collection on a daily basis but the concept is restricted to a few localities.
As a precursor to the Smart City plan, a private company has been assigned the task of collecting solid waste door to door in Tajganj ward. This ward will be covered under the Area Based Initiative for the project.
A plant will be installed to generate energy from 550 tonnes of waste daily and the power thus generated would finally be transferred to Power Grid.