The State Government has facilitated online facility to seek permission for tree cutting for projects purposes from the Revenue and Disaster Management Department, officials informed.
The Central Government has also approved 20,716 hectares of land for afforestation drive in Chhattisgarh during the last financial year under ‘Green India Mission’.
The funds released by the Centre for the afforestation programme amounts to Rs 17.39 crore during the current financial year, officials informed.
During the last financial year, the Centre had approved the same quantum of land (20,716 hectares) for afforestation with fund allocation of Rs 23.39 crores.
The students, officials and employees of various universities, colleges will also plant one lakh saplings in the current year as a part of the ‘Hariyar Chhattisgarh Mission’, officials informed.
The Higher Education Department officials said that as per the wishes and directives of Chief Minister Raman Singh, the target is to carry out plantations in all the universities and colleges in the current academic session.
A circular had been issued to all the Vice-Chancellors of universities and Principals of various colleges.
A minimum of 500 saplings have to be planted in each educational institution under the ‘Hariyar Chhattisgarh Mission’.
The State government has planted around 61,83,000 saplings at an expenditure of Rs 13.73 crore, officials stated.
A total of 35,55,000 saplings were prepared with a budget of Rs 5.58 crore at the nursery level.
Panchayat and Rural Development Department officials said 5,183 activities are sanctioned for planting saplings on the roadsides under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and Mukhya Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
The government has fixed a budget of over Rs 111 crore for planting 10 lakh saplings under the plan.
Similar targets have been made at the nursery and block plantation levels.
As many as 8.25 crore saplings have been planted under the campaign till September last year. It is around 85,000 more than the target of the Forest Department, officials stated.
Notably, Chief Minister Raman Singh had urged each citizen to plant atleast four saplings in the ongoing greening exercise. It sums up to planting 10 crore saplings by the present population of 2.5 crore across the State.
Singh has given different target to every Government departments. The maximum aim of planting 40 crore saplings was set for the Forest Department.
The Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) had been utilizing recycled water from its four Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs) for watering trees and plants as part of its massive greening exercise in the new capital city, officials informed.
Notably, Naya Raipur- the high tech new capital city of Chhattisgarh is a ‘zero sewage discharge city’ equipped with decentralized sewage treatment for better efficiency.
Being first planned city of 21st century, Naya Raipur already has state-of-the-art infrastructure at its disposal. The city has well planned economic and social infrastructure, officials informed.
The Village Development Plan is also taking care of social equity and cohesion. The rich culture and heritage all adds to the strength of the city, they informed.
It may be recalled that a ‘Master System Integrator’ will manage the extraordinarily high-technology oriented ‘Naya Raipur Smart City System’.
The Naya Raipur Smart City System will comprise Smart Governance, City Surveillance, Intelligent Transport management System, Electricity and Water supply and City Command and Control Centre among others, officials informed.
Notably, the Naya Raipur as a Smart City will leverage the collective intelligence created by connecting physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure to deliver a quantum improvement in the quality of life of local population, they informed.
Notably, the new capital city of Chhattisgarh is a ‘green field’ city and is planned to develop its infrastructure gradually in order to provide world class amenities and facilities to its residents and visitors.
NRDA has taken the next step in “Smart City’ development with plans now for ‘Information & Communication Technology” (ICT) enablement of infrastructure and citizen services, officials informed
Naya Raipur is already among five other cities in the country chosen as ‘Demonstration Cities’ for the Centre’s ambitious Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP). The final five cities participating as ‘Demonstration Cities’ under Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP) are - Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Mysore (Karnataka), Naya Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad (Maharashtra).
Detailed project profiles were prepared by all cities with the assistance of the SUTP Consultants and then endorsed by the SUTP Steering Committee to be included to SUTP as ‘City Demonstration Projects’, officials stated.