Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 12: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo today took appraisal of the operational preparedness of all the ongoing and completed projects of the Smart City Mission (SCM) in the twin cities of Srinagar and Jammu.
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, H&UDD; Principal Secretary, Finance; Commissioner JMC/SMC besides other concerned officers.
During this meeting, the Chief Secretary asked for insights into the kind of facilities and projects to be made available under SCM at both Srinagar and Jammu. He observed that the facilities and infrastructure being raised under this mission ought to be maintained properly for reaping benefits accruing from them continuously.
He told both the CEOs of JSCL and SSCL to look into raising of assets that would make the operation and maintenance of such assets durable and long lasting. He stressed on working out a model after properly analyzing the recurring expenditure to be made on such projects of public use. He asked for finding the resources that would sustain these projects for posterity.
He asked about the list of projects completed under the mission at Jammu and Srinagar till now and ongoing ones with their anticipated dates of completion. He enquired about the usage of the projects dedicated to public and the pace of those under execution. He advised them to coordinate with the divisional administration for seeking earlier resolution of all the interdepartmental issues affecting their works.
Dulloo asked about the status of the work on the Tawi Riverfront Development and water transport project in Srinagar. He called for operationalization of IT based smart traffic management systems like ILTM and ITMS at an earliest. He called for completing all the projects of the mission by their stipulated timelines without any fail.
The Chief Secretary was informed by the Principal Secretary, H&UDD, Prashant Goyal that the smart city projects are completed by sharing of 50% revenue each by Centre and the UT besides arranging funding through PPP and convergence modes.
He further added that the Smart city projects includes creation of many kiosks, VMDs, advertisement decks, commercial spaces, e-buses, parking areas and public utilities that would fetch them revenue through ticketing.
It was also given out that the mission here is in a process of detailed out a plan to make the facilities and projects most beneficial and sustainable for the people of the UT for times to come.