BHOPAL, Dec 3 - �The Bhopal Smart City Vision is an idea to transform the State capital of Madhya Pradesh into a future-ready Smart City with enhanced liveability, workability and sustainability.�
The Commissioner of Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) Priyanka Das stated this on November 29 while taking part in a deliberation programme with the Goodwill Mission team of the Assam Government comprising of 14 journalists.
Addressing the journalists, the Commissioner of BMC said that the Bhopal Smart City Vision was initiated in 2015 under the Smart City Mission of the Government of India. Bhopal Smart City Initiative is a time-bound re-development effort, sharply focused on urban re-haul by imbuing its rich socio-cultural fabric with futuristic planning and state-of-the-art technology, she added.
Guwahati, which is popularly considered the gateway of the North-East, was included under the Smart City Mission of the Government of India last year. But barring the declaration of the capital expansion scheme this year, no progress has been made in implementing the project till date.
Meanwhile, the BMC is going ahead with the work of the project. According to the Commissioner, rebuilding of Bhopal�s ecosystem by creating an environment of overall growth, the Smart City strategy simultaneously moves on two parts of development, i.e. (i) Area-based development (ABD) and (ii) Pan-city development.
The strategy is to create a city for tomorrow based on the idea of Smart Planning, Smart Initiative and Smart Convergence, she said. She further said that based on the strategic component of the city, renewal and redevelopment efforts have been initiated to replace the existing infrastructural set-up of the ABD area with efficient future-ready provisions.
This will aim at creating an environment that enables co-creation of a new layout with enhanced infrastructure and resources, she added.
The most important point which was referred to by the Commissioner of BMC was an efficient, advanced and commercially viable development plan. The plan primarily aims at triggering real estate growth in the vicinity by creating a productive land bank that provides more room for commercial activities and provisions.
Acquisition of land is the main challenge for the BMC, which is delaying the works of the Smart City Vision, the Commissioner added. Not surprisingly, rather, the Guwahati Smart City Vision will also face similar problems in the near future.
However, she said that the city administration is continuously working towards the development of a slum-free city which offers a well-planned housing facility to the homeless. Under the various components of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, a plan is under way to build 27,160 affordable houses for the urban poor, the Commissioner added.
