Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, APRIL 4
Chief Minister TR Zeliang today acknowledged that the attributes of a smart city, viewed in the context of the present Kohima city, may seem to be “a very tall order” and the targets difficult to achieve to the desired level, basically because Kohima is a very old and unplanned city.
Addressing the state level consultative meeting on Smart Cities Mission (SCM) for Kohima at the Secretariat conference hall Monday afternoon, the Chief Minister said the SCM being one of the new national flagship programs of the NDA government at the Centre to transform the face of India, the concept of a smart city is a new thing for the people of Nagaland. He said that based on the unplanned set up of Kohima, there will be serious limitations while competing with other better planned cities across the country.
Zeliang pointed out that Kohima could not make the cut in the first round of selection for SCM but it got selected along with 22 other cities for the fast-track stage competition for which the proposals are to be submitted before April 15. He emphasized that the shortcomings of the first proposal have to be identified and worked on collectively with seriousness so that the same mistakes are not repeated, and expressed hope that more practical proposals will be incorporated in the Kohima Smart City vision document for the forthcoming second phase selection.
“As I understand, a smart city is to be a progressive and sustainable city,” he said, and maintained that a smart city has to have a good and efficient transportation system, effective system for disposal of waste, sufficient and regular supply of water and electricity, good health care and education facilities, effective policing system and security arrangements, etc.
“What we are to do is basically that of retrofitting an old city and not developing a new planned township or city,” he explained and solicited the cooperation of every citizen and the participation of all the departments towards the project.
He clarified the perception that the activities under the SCM will be entirely absorbed by the Municipal Affairs Department (MAD) is wrong and added that every major department is required to coordinate in the entire process.
Besides this, the Chief Minister asserted that the success of the Kohima Smart City project will clearly depend on the involvement and contributions of the whole community of Kohima, particularly the landowners who, he remarked, should be willing to sacrifice individual interest for the larger cause of the entire community as and when necessary. “If any portion of our land is required for the project, we should be ready to part with it for a fair and reasonable amount of compensation,” he said.
He expressed appreciation that the Kohima Village Council has been equally concerned and have on several occasions conveyed their willingness to cooperate in the smart city endeavour. Such spirit of sacrifice and accommodation for the sake of public interest, he observed, will go a long way in making Kohima a smart city.
Zeliang also called upon the people to start cultivating a better sense of civic consciousness and try to make the town clean and healthy, as the first steps towards the smart city project, and also emphasized the need to involve departments like PHED, Power and Road & Bridges etc. to renovate or replace the entire system to be a sustainable one.
“Let us collectively own this Kohima Smart City project. Let us not leave it for somebody else to do it for us,” he stated.
Sharing a brief note on the challenges and positive aspects on Kohima Smart City, Kohima Municipal Council (KMC) administrator, Kovi Meyase said the geographical spread of the 20 cities selected in the first stage showed that not all states or UTs were covered. Spreading the message of urban transformation in all parts of the country being the essential spirit of the SCM, a special fast-track competition was provided to 23 states /UTs including Kohima to upgrade their proposals, he explained, adding that those proposals which achieve the benchmark set by winning cities will become eligible for funding on accelerated basis in 2016-17.
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In this backdrop, he said, the Ministry of Urban Development had identified certain gaps that require being plugged and upgraded which included that the needs and aspirations of the city should be further elaborated, establish the identity of the city, stronger linkages between vision and strategies adopted towards it, more elaboration of areas for smart interventions under area based and Pan City proposals, proposals to be made more inclusive and consultations should include citizens from all sections of the city, more sources of municipal financial strength to be highlighted, reworking of SPV structure, MoUs from various link/allied departments be included, address lack of data amalgamation in the first proposal, and periodical baseline survey.
Meyase said the MAD and the KMC along with the Kohima Smart City consultants, have worked on the above and expressed hope that the initiatives will propel the revised proposal towards being selected in this round of competition.
He informed that the 23 cities in the fast-track competition which do not meet the benchmark will join in the challenge of the main round 2 beginning this month where up to 40 cities are expected to be announced in August.
He said the prospects of Kohima being selected appear far more encouraging this time as the stakeholders realize the purpose of the SCM which effectively is to improve the quality of life for the citizens and drive economic growth by enabling local area development and harnessing technology that leads to smart outcomes.
Meanwhile, legislators, bureaucrats and HoDs who were present at the meeting shared their concerns and suggestions. Some of the suggestions included proper planning, providing alternative/improved road connectivity, empanelling a legal representative in the BoD, inclusion of the disaster management authority in the SPV, replacement of city buses with smaller vehicles (eg, TATA Winger), explore the possibility of constructing a ring/circular road around the town, expansion of the town.
