Sangam City ranks 51 in smart mission

Allahabad: If Allahabad has failed to rank among the all-India top 50 in terms of execution of smart city projects, blame its late selection under the central scheme, say officials.
At rank 51, the Sangam City is behind Kanpur (8th), Varanasi (13th) and Lucknow (45th) in the annual evaluation report recently released by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs. The assessment is based on the progress of projects initiated using funds received under the smart city scheme.
Despite undertaking several development projects (mostly during Kumbh 2019) such as widening of roads, installation of new traffic lights, improving network of CCTV cameras and refurbishing buildings, the city has failed to make the cut.
Smart city mission manager SK Sinha told TOI that the key reason behind the low rank was the fact that Allahabad was selected for the central scheme in the third round, almost two years after Kanpur, Varanasi and Lucknow.
“Late selection means late start of every project in every respect,” Sinha said. “Since there is a set of parameters followed by the government while awarding ranks to cities, Allahabad is indeed behind many others in terms of floating tenders and execution of projects,” he explained.
Another official said since some of the major development projects happened in the run-up to Kumbh 2019, these might not have been considered under the smart city head.
Listing what the city has achieved till date, mission manager Sinha said Phase-I of setting up an integrated control and command centre had been completed and soon, Phase-II would begin. “More areas and traffic intersections will boast CCTV cameras and sensors. Once the project is launched in full capacity, all e-challans will be automatically generated,” he said.
Allahabad will also float tenders for various projects, including open gyms in 200 places, multi-level parking lots, sports complexes, smart schools, rainwater harvesting and bus terminus, Sinha maintained.