UT forms five-member smart city technical committee

CHANDIGARH: To speed up pending projects under the smart city mission, the UT administration has formed a five-member technical committee. The panel will comprise chief engineers from Chandigarh administration, municipal corporation and Chandigarh Housing Board; smart city general manager and UT chief architect. The committee will oversee the key projects and will then draft a technical proposal. The projects will be taken up only after the committee's approval.

The administration will soon start projects like 24X7 water supply in Manimajra, bicycle sharing system, upgradation of sewage treatment plants, integrated command and control centre and mining of dumping ground.

Recently, the Centre had even sought report on the fund utilized in the last two years by the UT administration for the smart city. The Centre had released Rs 300 crore funds for the mission, however, the administration in the last two years has only spent Rs 20 crores.

A few months ago, the board of directors of Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL) had approved a detailed project reports of 24X7 water supply in Manimajra and bicycle sharing system. Similarly, two other projects - integrated command control centre and upgradation of five sewage treatment plants - were approved on September 26.

Chandigarh was declared a smart city in May 2016. The smart cities mission aims at promoting smart solutions for efficient use of available assets, resources and infrastructure. The Centre has earmarked Rs 48,000 crore for development of 100 smart cities.