Good roads, smooth traffic remain a dream in Kashi
VARANASI: The smart city issue is echoing in the ongoing campaigning for the local body elections here. “Has Kashi turned into a smart city? Is it equipped with facilities like good roads, encroachment free-streets and smooth traffic management,” local trader Rajiv Rai asks Suresh Kumar, a diehard BJP supporter, when Kumar requests him to vote in favour of BJP candidates in the upcoming local body elections.
Kumar tries to convince Rai that work is in progress and that change will be visible in days to come. It has been 14 months since Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of PM Narendra Modi, found place in the smart city project.
However, any signs of smart city are yet to emerge in the oldest living city known for its diversity and iconic ghats. Traffic jams, bumpy roads, smoke emitting vehicles and uneven parking besides encroached lanes and streets haunt locals daily. Stuck in a traffic jam at Benia, one Dharmendra Singh said, “I am stuck in jam for the last 30 minutes. Will Varanasi really become a smart city?”
Besides Singh, many others raise the question when those in the fray seek their vote and support using smart city as a poll plank. Congress leader Shailendra Pratap Singh asks, “What happened to Kyoto like development in Kashi and why Varanasi doesn’t have smart city like facilities so far, locals want to know.”
Singh said the promise the BJP made during the 2014 general elections to develop 100 cities as smart ones failed and now its leaders were claiming to develop 13 more cities in the state as smart cities. Firstly, they should answer why no sign of smart city emerged in Varanasi, the PM Modi’s constituency, let alone others.
Sources in the municipal corporation said around 100 meetings were held in this regard. Officials of the union urban development ministry attended some 25 of these meetings in Varanasi and gave their valuable suggestions to realise the dream project of the PM in his own constituency.
Top officials of the district administration and the VMC attended meetings in New Delhi to materialise the plan. Despite these efforts, smart city still remains a dream for locals.
While slow pace of the project disappoints locals, officials claim that process to implement the project on time is going at appropriate speed. “A few companies were selected as project management consultants (PMC) in May. The companies are preparing a DPR. Tenders for the city command control centre, smart part and road have already been issued. All the work will be completed on time,” municipal commissioner Dr Nitin Bansal said.