Early Times Report
Jammu, May 6: Ironically of total Rs 500 Cr rupees sanctioned for the smart city project, only Rs 1.5 Cr have been utilized to this day, turning the much hyped PM's 80 k Cr package a mere hoax.
On November 7, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sanctioned a whooping Rs 80K crore package for Jammu and Kashmir's various developmental projects.
Of the total sanctioned amount, Rs 500 Cr each were sanctioned for smart cities in Jammu as well as Srinagar. However, four years down the line, as per the official documents, not even one percent of the funds have been utilised on ground reflecting that the smart city promise was a big joke cracked on the people by the coalition of PDP-BJP.
If sources within the government are to be believed, the Smart City proposal has been dumped by the government and there are least chances of it being raked up again anytime soon.
Pertinently, the State Government vide Order No.1081-GAD dated August 21, 2017 constituted Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) as Companies Limited by shares named as Jammu Smart City Limited and Srinagar Smart City Limited under the Companies Act, 2013 with authorized share capital of Rs 10 lakh, equity share of Rs 10 each and paid up capital of Rs 10 lakh for both the companies for implementation of smart city development projects.
Now when the deadline has been missed for the implementation of the project, the government seems to have discovered an alternate route to hoodwink public opinion. It is now, as per insiders dishing out Ropeway projects in Jammu as well as in Srinagar to address the traffic congestion.
Early Times already has reported how the government is now exploring others options to hoodwink people and make them forget the much hyped Smart Cities in Jammu and Srinagar.
On February 11, this year, the Governor directed the authorities to identify the most feasible areas in the State for the establishment of Ropeway projects.
During the meeting, the authorities were briefed about various advantages of Ropeways which included low space requirement, limited capital investment and operating costs, ability to overfly obstacles, quick to build, connectivity to other transport systems, environmentally sustainable, easy accessibility, positive social impact with increased access to jobs, health and education, safety, lowest operating costs among all transport solutions, lowest maintenance costs among all transport options etc. They stated that such systems can carry up to 12,000 people per hour and have the highest level of incremental scalability. They further said that similar projects have already been initiated in other states such as Himachal Pradesh. |
