Volume V l Issue 3 Pages 16 www.urbannewsdigest.in `50 / us $5 MAY 2016

resilientcities 04

healthycities 05

humanecities 08

digitalcities 09

greencities 06

focuscity 10

connectedcities 07

workingcities 14

smartcities 03

13 more Smart Cities announced under Fast Track competition

Central Government has announced 13 more smart cities. Lucknow topped the list of winners of the Fast Track com-petition conducted for 23 cities from as many States and Union Territories. Announcing the winners at a media con-ference on the occasion of two years of the Government in office, Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation M Venkaiah Naidu said that the cities that participated in the competition improved the quality of smart city plans by up to over 25% to become eligible for selection. With the selection of these 13 cities, 25 States/UTs are now covered under Smart City Mission

On the occasion, Naidu released a publication ‘Urban Renaissance : May,2014-May,2016’ giving a detailed account of paradigm shift in attitudes and approaches to urban plan-ning and governance and the major drivers of urban revival and transformation set in motion during the last two years.

Naidu informed that Lucknow that missed the list of first 20 smart cities improved the quality of its smart city plan by 19% to make it to the select list. Other winners of Fast Track competition were ; Warangal, Telanagana (13%), Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh (27%), Chandigarh (9%), Raipur, Chattisgarh (25%), New Town Kolkata (11%), Bhagal-pur, Bihar (25%), Panaji, Goa (9%), Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands (26%), Imphal, Manipur (27%), Ranchi, Jharkhand (27%), Agartala, Tripura (25%) and Faridabad, Haryana(12%).

These 13 cities were selected based on the marks scored by them in the Fast Track competition and the bench marks set by the top performers in the first round of Smart City Chal-lenge competition in which the first 20 cities were selected from among 98 mission cities.

Naidu stated that the 13 cities have substantially improved their smart city plans by addressing the deficiencies identi-fied in the first round of competition by ensuring better pro-filing of respective cities in terms of infrastructure gaps and baseline service levels, ensuring consistency between citi-zens’ aspirations and action plans, more feasible resource mobilisation plans and coordinated and integrated picture of how individual projects will contribute to area level changes.

Other cities that participated in Fast Track Compe-tition were : Namchi, Sikkim and ranked 14, Aizawl, Mizoram(15), Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh(16), Deh-radun, Uttarakhand(17), Kohima, Nagaland(18),

Oulgaret, Puducherry(19), Silvassa, Dadra, Nagar & Haveli(20), Kavaratti, Lakshdweep(21), Diu, Daman & Diu(22) and Shillong, Meghalaya(23). These cities can submit their revised smart city plans for evaluation in the second round of regular competition underway by the end of June.

Venkaiah Naidu informed that the tie between Meerut and Rai Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Srinagar in J&K will be resolved by allowing them to participate in the smart city competition and one city from each of these two States will be selected based on the quality of smart city plans. Seven capital cities left out of Smart City Mission will also be allowed to participate in the competition. These cit-ies are: Patna, Shimla, Naya Raipur, Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala).

The Minister said that as a part of efforts for country’s transformation towards higher levels of social and eco-nomic development, renaissance of urban sector has been set in motion through a paradigm shift in policies and pro-grammes. “The new approaches introduced, the new churn-ing at the level of urban local bodies and States/UTs, the new spirit of competition among cities and Stated to do bet-ter than others, the new enthusiasm and vigor being dem-onstrated, the new clarity of thought about outcomes and actions to be taken and the new beginning towards urban transformation in a more purposeful and holistic manner marked the process of urban renaissance” he said.

Extensive stakeholder consultations and citizen partic-ipation, selection of cities based on competition and other

Posted at NDPSO, New Delhi - 110 002 on 16th and 17th of every month | Date of Publication 10/11 of every month | Postal Registration No. DL(S)-01/3406/2015-17 | RNI No. DELENG/2012/41753

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PM reviews progress of Aadhar and Direct Benefit Transfer programmes

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Golden Temple voted 3rd most popular attraction in India: Survey

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Bhubaneswar railway station gets ‘Fast Wi-Fi for All’

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Approval for housing applications to be online: M Venkaiah Naidu

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Transport minister unveils a part of Western Peripheral Expressway

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Cabinet approves 200 MW Solar Power Plant at Jetsar, Rajasthan

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Maharashtra’s 51 urban areas becomes Open Defecation Free

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Transport Minister dedicates NIRBHAYA buses to the public

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400 railway stations to be developed as smart stations

Urban development transforms Jaipur into a modern city

ViBrantcities 12

2 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | MAY 2016 Cover story

Contd. from page 1...

objective criteria, full autonomy to cities and States/UTs to formulate, appraise and approve projects, replacing project based sanctions of the past to area and outcome based planning, conver-gence based implementation of schemes and sub-stantial enhancement in Central assistance are the major drivers of urban revival, said Naidu.

Giving an account of the gains of new initiatives and approaches, Naidu said that for the first time in the country, 98 smart cities and 497 Atal Mis-sion cities accounting for over 70% of urban pop-ulation now have long term five year action plans based on comprehensive analysis of infrastruc-ture gaps. Other positives the Minister stated include : Atal Mission cities acquiring technology platforms for transparent and accountable gov-ernance and citizen engagement, about 100 cities initiating action for obtaining Credit Ratings nec-essary for resource mobilisation, approvals for plans for providing water taps to the unconnected

25 million urban households besides ensuring water supply at the norm of 135 litres per head per day to all urban households by 2019, smart city development benefitting 130 million urban peo-ple, streamlining approvals for building permits in urban areas, efforts for sanitation benefitting all 80 million urban households, well considered initiatives to ensure affordable housing for all the urban poor etc.

Naidu further informed that Central assistance for improving basic infrastructure in urban areas has been increased to Rs 1,13,143 crore under new urban missions as against only Rs 33,902 crore during 2004-14. For affordable housing for urban poor, Central assistance of Rs 10,050 crore has already been approved as against only Rs 17,889 crore during the previous 10 years.

6.84 lakh houses have already been sanctioned for Economically Weaker Sections under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) accounting for more

than half of 13.70 lakh houses sanctioned during 2004-14 out of which only 8.04 lakh houses could be built. Availability of land is being ensured before agreeing to fund housing schemes besides giving four options to the beneficiaries to choose from based on their needs and incomes to enable targeted construction of affordable houses, the Minister observed.

Venkaiah Naidu informed that the new urban sector initiatives of PMAY(Urban), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Start City Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission and Heritage Development and Aug-mentation Yojana (HRIDAY) have a total invest-ment potential of Rs 18 lakh crore. Of this, an investment of Rs 1,48,093 crore has already been approved. This include; Affordable housing-Rs 43,922 crore, Atal Mission-Rs 20,882 crore, Smart City Mission-Rs 80,789 crore, Swachh Bharat Mis-sion-Rs 2,000 crore and HRIDAY- Rs 500 crore.

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5,534 crore investment in basic urban infra under Atal Mission approved in 6 states for 2016-17Ministry of Urban Development will convene annual meetings of all States and Union Territories to dis-cuss and review at the highest level progress of urban renaissance set in motion. A decision taken in this regard by the Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu was conveyed to the six States that attended the meeting of the Apex Committee con-vened for approving annual action plans of States under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).

Rajiv Gauba, Secretary (UD), who is also the Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Apex Committee informed the participating States that Ministers of Urban Development and Housing of all States/UTs, Mayors and Municipal Chairpersons, Secretaries of Urban Development of States/UTs, Mission Directors and Municipal Commissioners of all 500 AMRUT cit-ies will be attending the two day conference for tak-ing stock of progress of urban sector reforms, imple-mentation of new schemes etc., initiated during the last two years as a part of urban renaissance. The first such conference will be held in the next two months.

Gauba said that henceforth, the Ministry will approve States’ Annual Action Plans for the entire mission period based on which annual plans could be prepared and considered for approval before the commencement of a financial year to ensure timely execution.

The six participating States informed the Commit-tee that action is in progress for obtaining Credit Rat-ings for over 100 mission cities and the process would be completed before the end of this year.

The Apex Committee chaired by Rajiv Gauba approved a total investment of Rs 5,534 crore for pro-viding household water taps, improving water sup-ply, sewerage networks/septage management, storm water drains, urban transport and provision of open and green spaces in 111 Atal Mission cities in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand and Meghalaya. A total Central Assis-tance of Rs 2,453 crore will be given to these States.

Under first approvals under AMRUT during the

current financial year, Rs 2,126 crore will be spent on providing water supply connections to unconnected households and augmenting water supply, Rs 2,848 crore on expanding sewerage networks, Rs 140 crore on storm water drains, Rs 190 crore on urban trans-port and Rs 101 crore for improving open and green spaces in 111 mission cities in the six States.

For 2016-17, approved investment in 34 mission cit-ies of Madha Pradesh has been Rs 2,074 crore with Central assistance of Rs 862.80 crore, for 31 cities of Gujarat-Rs 1,401 crore with Central assistance of Rs 599.18 crore, for 29 cities of Rajasthan-Rs 1,120 crore with Central assistance of Rs 536 crore, for 9 cities of Odisha-Rs 531 crore with Central assistance of 265 crore, for 7 cities of Jharkhand-Rs 381 crore with Cen-tral assistance of Rs 164 crore and for the lone Mission city of Shillong in Meghalaya-Rs 26.67 crore with Cen-tral assistance of Rs 24 crore.

These six States proposed a total investment of

Rs 43,569 crore by 2019-20 under AMRUT. The pro-posals include: Gujarat- Rs 15,375 crore, Odisha-Rs 10,226 crore, MP-Rs 8,279 crore, Rajasthan-Rs 5,498 crore, Jharkhand-Rs 3,919 crore and Meghalaya-Rs 172 crore.

With today’s approvals, the total investment approved for improvement of basic urban infrastruc-ture under Atal Mission has gone up to Rs 26,416 crore with a total Central assistance of Rs 12,347 crore.

The Apex Committee also approved release of Central assistance of Rs 520 crore for the JNNURM schemes under implementation.

The Committee also approved release of Central assistance of Rs 20.19 crore to Meghalaya as second installment for procurement of 240 buses and Rs 4.00 crore to Maharashtra for Bus depot at Ghansoli and development of Intelligent Traffic Management System.

urBan news digest | may 2016 • 3smart cities

About 400 railway stations across the country would be renovated into iconic structures as a station is a starting point of any city and attracts maximum footfalls, stated Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. “We are making plans to redevelop 400 stations as new icons of cities. The pro-cess has already been started in this regard,” the minister said at the Smart City conference.

He said the government has taken steps to develop 100 cities as ‘Smart Cities’ in the country and since stations are the beginning of any city, they would also be devel-oped as ‘smart stations.’ With private participation, Rail-ways is planning to re-develop 400 major stations to pro-vide improved passengers amenities.

Habibganj station in Bhopal would be taken up first and

then eight more stations would also be redeveloped shortly.“The discussion and pre-bidding process are on. It will

be done in a transparent manner in partnership with pri-vate players,” the minister said.

He stated that the railway stations would have better facilities than airports. “So we will not only have Smart City but also smart stations,” Prabhu said.

Referring to migration to cities, Prabhu said, “Like China, massive urbanisation has taken place in India. Millions have migrated to cities. People migrate because of jobs, opportunities and better facilities in cities. So we need smart ideas to make a city better.”

“So one has to plan accordingly. It needs transporta-tion planning. We need smart transportation,” he added.

400 railway stations to be developed as smart stations

Conceptualise smart cities according to Indian needs: Piyush Goyal

IBM’s smart city solution deployed at Rashtrapati Bhavan

Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy has called for conceptualis-ing smart cities according to Indians needs. Goyal said that in the Indian context we need to conceptualise, a practical and doable, affordable smart city concept which can be deliberated, discussed and then imple-mented in the country.

Goyal said that the power of economies of scale, the power of leveraging billion plus aspiring individuals, ensuring affordability to make a programme self-sus-tainable, practical application in the Indian context are the keys to the implementation of smart cities in our country. “What we need to do is to look at the econo-mies of scales and faster ramp up of those ideas, which can really work for the benefit of the people in a fash-ion, can be done so that there is a visibility of what these smart cities are going to be all about,” Goyal added.

Citing an example of energy efficiency programme, Goyal said that 83% cost reduction in LED bulbs was possible due to massive roll out of the programme and the people of India will save 6.5 billion dollars every year on their electricity bills.

Global IT firm IBM declared that its Smart City solu-tions have been deployed for the digital transformation of the Presidential Estate. Stretching across 330 acres of land and home to over 5,000 residents, the self-sus-tained Presidential Estate is implementing IBM’s tech-nology and solutions to become future ready.

The partnership to re-imagine the Rashtrapati Bha-van in the Digital age was announced at an event by the President Pranab Mukherjee.

The Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) tack-les challenges which are inherent to townships, like water supply, security, electrical infrastructure and solid waste management. The transformation of the estate into a smart township has customised in order to enhance the efficiency of critical infrastructure and utilities, said a release from IBM.

IBM’s IOC assists in collecting and making sense of the data streaming in from several sources inside the Estate to provide actionable insights. It offers integrated data visualisation, near real-time collaboration and analytics to help enhance and improve the efficiency of services for its residents.

A Citizens Mobile App, created by IBM IOC, has also been introduced, that allows residents to report issues using the web and mobile. The data from reported observation would be supplied to city offices, where they can use the insights to make informed decisions.

“Rashtrapati Bhavani is an iconic representation of India’s Smart City vision. It is a proud moment for all of us and the beginning of a great journey. We are hon-ored to be their partner in enabling this transforma-tion,” said, Vanitha Narayanan, MD, IBM India.

UIDAI generates a billion Aadhaars – a historic moment for IndiaThe Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) gen-erated the 100th crore Aadhaar on April 4, 2016, touching the landmark in a span of five-and-a-half years since the first Aadhaar was issued in 2010. This comes just a few days after a historic legislation Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits, and Services) Act 2016 has been notified by the Government.

Aadhaar coverage now is at 93% among people above the age of 18 (as per projected population figures of 2015).

As on date, in 13 States and Union Territories (UTs) Aadhaar saturation has crossed 90%, while in 13 other States and UTs it is between 75-90%.

Aadhaar crossing the 100-crore mark is indeed a momentous occasion. This along with the recently notified Aadhaar Act will give a boost to the Government’s initia-tive of bringing a systemic change in the way services, sub-sidies and benefits will be directly delivered to the deserv-ing masses.

Aadhaar Achievements:> More than 100 crore people have Aadhaar> 73.96 crores (93%) of adults in India have Aadhaar> 22.25 crore (67%) children of age 5-18 years have

Aadhaar> 2.30 crore (20%) children of age 0 – <5 years have

Aadhaar> Every day more than 5-7 lakhs people get enrolled for

Aadhaar> Aadhaar is now the largest online digital identity plat-

form in the worldAadhaar Benefits:> DBTL (Pahal) – estimated savings of Rs 14,672 crore> PDS – estimated savings of Rs 2,346 crore across 4

states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Puducherry and Delhi

> Scholarship – estimated savings of Rs 276 crore across 3 states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Punjab

> Pensions (NSAP) – estimated savings of Rs 66 crore across 3 states of Jharkhand, Chandigarh, and Puducherry

Aadhaar Usage:> 25.48 crore bank accounts linked with unique

Aadhaars> Over 12.28 crore (71%) LPG connections linked with

Aadhaar> Over 11.39 crore (45%) ration cards linked with

Aadhaar> Over 5.90 crore (60%) NREGA Cards linked with

AadhaarAadhaar Authentication:> Over 150.6 crore authentication transactions done by

UIDAI

> Over 8.4 crore e-KYC transactions done at UIDAI> UIDAI authenticates over 40 lakh auto transactions

per dayUIDAI today has a capacity of generating and dis-

patching over 15 lakh Aadhaars every day and has 37,304 enrolment stations spread across the country, manned by 3,76,543 certified operators.

Aadhaar applications and seeding too have seen impres-sive growth in the past two years. The number of transac-tions using Aadhaar Authentication has risen to 150.6 crores as on March 31, 2016, compared to 8.82 crores on May 31, 2014. The number of e-KYC transactions has gone up to 8.4 crores as on March 31, 2016, as against 2.7 lakh transac-tion on May 31, 2014.

Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) has been developed which enables disbursal of benefits/other payments directly to the beneficiary through his Aadhaar number without requiring his bank details has shown considerable growth in the past two years. Today more than 23 crore people have linked their bank accounts to their Aadhaars on the Aad-haar Payment Bridge. A total number of transactions on the APB was logged at 94.71 crores worth Rs 28,363 crore, a handsome rise compared to the data on May 31, 2014, which was 7.13 crore APB transactions worth Rs. 4,474 crore.

Another important achievement in the past two years is the growth seen in the Aadhaar Enabled Payment Sys-tem (AEPS). AEPS is a mechanism through which a bene-ficiary in a remote village, without having access to a bank branch is able to withdraw or deposit money at his door-step by giving his Aadhaar and fingerprint on a micro-ATM. A total number of AEPS transactions has gone up to 10.76 crores as on March 31, 2016, as against 46 lakh logged on May 31, 2014.

The government of India has provided fresh impetus to the UIDAI by linking Aadhaar to various schemes and initiatives, including the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), MGNREGS, Pensions, Scholarships, DBTL, UAN (EPFO), PDS.

urBan news digest | may 2016 • 4ReSIlIenT CITIeS

In an attempt to ensure security of children, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has ini-tiated a plan to install CCTV cameras in all the 579 municipal schools run by it with a budgetary provi-sion of Rs 5 crore in the current year.

“We have installed CCTV cameras in 20 schools so far to fulfil our commitment to provide fool proof security to students. All schools will have CCTV cameras for the purpose,” SDMC Mayor Subhash Arya.

Civic officials would also monitor CCTV cameras to not only keep an eye on security of children but also to address issues related to qualitative delivery of primary education, he stated.

“A monitoring team will be constituted in every zone and the SDMC officials at the headquarters will

supervise security from the control room at the Civic Centre,” Arya said.

The move to install the CCTV cameras comes fol-lowing the death of 5-year-old student Ankit who

fell in a septic tank at the SDMC school in Kapash-era area.

An amount of Rs 1 lakh would be spent on instal-lation of CCTV cameras in a school, with the SDMC earmarking an amount of Rs 5 crore for this during the financial year 2016-17, he added.

Besides, the councillors can also adopt a school in their ward and take up development work with pri-ority on installation of CCTV cameras there with the help of Rs 5 lakh provided to them under local area development fund.

The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) may also start CCTV camera installation at its schools since north-east Delhi BJP MP Manoj Tiwari recently expressed his wish to spend a part of his fund towards this end.

SDMC plans to install CCTVs in 579 municipal schools

Transport Minister dedicates NIRBHAYA buses to the publicIn an attempt to provide safe and secure transport to women, the Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari dedicated 20 buses of the Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation, with IT enabled safety measures to the public, at a function in the capital. As an initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways under the NIRBHAYA Scheme, 10 luxury buses, 10 general buses have been provided with Vehicle Tracking System (VTS), CCTV cameras and Panic Buttons on every seat to provide immediate help to women passengers in distress.

Speaking on the occasion, Gadkari said that certain unfortunate incidents in the recent past have forced his Ministry to take this step so that women travelling in buses would be safer. He informed that the CCTV cam-eras, the Vehicle Tracking System and especially the Panic Buttons would enable the police to know the exact location of the bus and provide prompt assistance. The Minister also said that efforts would be made to ensure that the scheme is extended to other buses and other states also in due course. He also said buses in future should be manufactured along with these features. Gad-kari said that these measures would keep anti-social ele-ments under check.

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways would issue a notification after June 2, 2016, making it man-datory for public vehicles with seating capacity of 23 or more to have CCTV camera, Vehicle Location Tracking Device and Panic Buttons. Those with a seating capac-ity of less than 23 would be required to have Vehicle

Tracking Device and emergency buttons. A draft noti-fication has already been issued in this regard.

The Minister for Women & Child Development, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi who was also present during the function, thanked the Rajasthan Government for taking this initiative. She said that this initiative would also help in preventing as well as rescuing children who are kidnapped. She expressed her desire that this sys-tem should be extended to trains also.

The Chairperson, National Commission for Women,

Lalitha Kumar Mangalam said that these measures would give confidence to women when travelling in buses at night. She also wanted the Government to do adequate publicity about these measures so that women come to know about them.

Also, present on the occasion was the Minister for Transport of Rajasthan, Yunus Khan who took the initiative to make Rajasthan the first State to ply such buses. The Rajasthan government’s move is a pilot project.

India joins hands with Russia for Disaster Management cooperationThe India-Russia Joint Commission meeting was held in New Delhi to discuss bilateral cooperation between the two countries. The Russian delegation was chaired by Vladimir Andreevich Puchkov, Minister of the Rus-sian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination Consequences of Natural Disasters and the Indian delegation was chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Rajnath Singh said that the two countries are linked by geography, history and culture and the linkages in the field of disaster management have continued to grow beyond boundaries. Singh mentioned that during the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction dur-ing March last year in Sendai, Japan we had agreed to enhance ongoing cooperation in dealing with emergency situation, natural disasters, research and training.

Rajnath Singh said that India is one of the most disas-ter-prone countries in the world. Floods, droughts, cyclones and landslides are common hazards, he added. He mentioned that the country is committed for conver-gence of disaster risk reduction with developmental pro-grammes and disaster management is not an issue of disaster alone rather it has now become more of a devel-opment issue.

Home Minister said that the cooperation in the areas such as controlling floods, minimising its consequences, as well as collaboration in capacity building, has been rightly highlighted in the Joint Implementation Plan. He hoped that with the signing of the Joint Implemen-tation Plan, the two countries would acquire new char-acter with enhanced levels of cooperation in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction.

Speaking on this occasion, Kiren Rijiju said that the output of this deliberation would pave the way for com-prehensive and structured cooperation to build capaci-ties of the first responder and other allied forces. He said that the Annual Summit meeting between the Prime Minister of India and the President of the Russian Fed-eration is the highest institutionalised dialogue mecha-nism under the Strategic Partnership between India and the Russian Federation.

Rijiju further said that the field of Disaster Manage-ment would initiate a new era of friendship that would enable both sides to work in close proximity in order to

minimise the risk we face due to increased frequency of natural calamities. He further said that India would be benefitted by the state of the art technology and struc-tures, Russia has created to monitor real-time basis dif-ferent events.

Rijiju mentioned that India has developed sufficient experience in handling disasters and has always been willing to extend technical and financial support to the neighbouring countries. In the aftermath of Nepal earthquake 2015, India was the first country to provide humanitarian assistance and to lead the rescue efforts, he added.

urBan news digest | may 2016 • 5healThy CITIeS

A 15-day special ‘Swachh Office Drive’ for ensuring cleanliness at all government offices across the coun-try has been launched as an intensive thematic cam-paign under Swachh Bharat Mission. Launching the drive, Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu planted a Neem sapling at Nirman Bhawan and inspected the building for about an hour for an on the spot assessment of sanitation.

The Minister visited different corridors of the building, individual rooms, toilets, storage places, water tanks and solar panels on the terrace of the building etc, and verified maintenance registers.

In a meeting with senior officials later, Naidu noted that there has been a considerable improve-ment towards ensuring cleanliness and there is still scope for improvement. He has directed senior officials of the Ministry and CPWD to ensure reg-ular inspection by senior officials to ensure total sanitation.

The Minister directed action to be taken for dumping waste material in one of the Electricity Dis-tribution Boards.

Ahead of the launch of Swachh Office Drive, the Ministry of Urban Development issued a Swachh Office Manual suggesting Standard Office Proce-dures to all the central ministries and State Govern-ments to ensure sanitation. Norms suggested therein include ensuring water supply @ 45 litres per head per day, one toilet for every 25 persons, urinals to be provided based on employee strength, removal of stains every week, checking electrical fittings twice a week, acid cleaning and scrubbing of toilets daily, schedule of inspections etc.

The Manual enables a self-assessment framework for improving Swachh Office Ratings, identification of gaps in sanitation infrastructure for correctional interventions.

Union Minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu recently informed, Maharashtra’s 51 towns and cities out of 361 have been declared ‘Free of Open Defecation’ (ODF) since the launch of toilet construction programme in May 2015 and 50 more urban areas are set to join the list soon.

Reviewing the progress of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Mission initiative here, the Minis-ter, however, expressed disappointment that Maharashtra belied his expectations of becoming the first state in the country to be free of open defecation.

“It was my earlier belief that Maharashtra would lead the country in becoming the first ODF (Open Defecation Free) state, but already Andhra Pradesh has declared that it will become ODF state by October 2, 2016,” said Naidu.

Addressing 27 municipal commissioners and senior officers of urban local bodies, the Minister said the govern-ment has so far released Rs 162 crore for the toilet construc-tion programme and another Rs 417 crore is available dur-ing the mission period.

The Ministry has revealed that Maharashtra against a target of constructing 450,000 private household latrines till March 2017, work has begun on 270,000 latrines and only 199,000 have been completed.

Similarly, against the target of building 22,000 commu-nity and public toilet seats by March 2017, work has been taken up only on 6,072 seats and only 3,467 have been con-structed till date.

On the solid waste management front, Naidu pointed out that of 59,400 metric tonnes installed capacity of com-post plants in this state, only 12,071 million tonnes – or around 20% – were being produced.

While only one Waste To Energy Plant in Sholapur was functional, another was nearing completion in Pune. The Minister urged the state government to build many more such plants.

He also asked the state to perform better on door-to-door waste collection since the service was available in only 561 of the total 7,054 wards in Maharashtra.

“I am given to understand that no funds have been taken from the Centre as of date, though there is a total of Rs 1,082 crore available over the mission period. I request you to kindly get projects approved expeditiously and approach the Centre for funds,” Naidu said.Urging urban local bodies to focus on community-led the-matic drives with citizen engagement programmes, Naidu said the mission would be a success only if it becomes a ‘Jan Andolan‘ or a citizens’ movement. He urged the state gov-ernment to speed up the process and become an ODF state at the earliest in this regard.

Maharashtra’s 51 urban areas becomes Open Defecation Free

Surat, Rajkot among cleanest railway stations in India: Survey UD Minister launches 15 day Swachh Office drive across the countryAccording to a survey, Surat and Rajkot in Gujarat are

among the cleanest railway stations in India whereas Mughalsarai in Uttar Pradesh and Pune are among the dirtiest. The station at Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh was third among the 75 A1-category railway stations fol-lowed by Solapur and Mumbai Central in Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) and Vadodara (Gujarat), as per the ‘Preliminary Report on Assess-ment of Cleanliness Standards at Major Railway Sta-tions’ released by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

Bringing up the rear were Guwahati, Hazrat Niza-muddin (Delhi), Sealdah (West Bengal), Kanpur Cen-tral (UP), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) and Muzaffarpur (Bihar).

“The idea is to make the entire rail network clean. This is just the beginning of a process which will actu-ally and eventually bring all stations on a par with a par-ticular standard,” Prabhu said.

He said the move is in line with the budget announce-ment of taking steps to improve the cleanliness at the 8,000 stations in India and take forward the ‘Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat’ mission.In ‘A’ Category (332 stations), among the top 10 cleanest stations were Beas (Punjab), Jamnagar and Gandhid-ham (Gujarat), Vasco-Da-Gama (Goa), Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu) and Nasik Road (Maharashtra). Shahganj,

Ballia and Janghai (Uttar Pradesh), Madhubani and Bakhtiyarpur (Bihar) and Raichur (Karnataka) were among the 10 least clean stations.

The task of the survey was entrusted by the Rail Min-istry to Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corpo-ration (IRCTC), which engaged TNS India Pvt Ltd for undertaking the work. As many as 75 A1 and 332 A cat-egory stations across 16 zonal railways were covered by the survey.

The survey was conducted through interviews with passengers who were asked to rate the cleanliness of sta-tions on 40 different parameters.

The final report is expected to be submitted by IRCTC shortly, after the scrutiny of which Ministry of Railways will take further action for improving the cleanliness standards at major stations of Indian Railways.

Urban toilet mission achieves 54% of the target in 2015-16In 2015-16, construction of household toilets in urban areas achieved 54% of the target while the figure was 68% for community and public toilets.As per the data submitted by the Urban Development Ministry, 13.2 lakh individual household toilets were built against a target of 25 lakh. Work has commenced on 24.6 lakh more such toilets, which is expected to push the pace of completion during this financial year, the min-istry said.

Construction of both individual and community toilet seats are key to achieving complete sanitation in urban areas, particularly to end open defecation in cities. Guja-rat emerged as the best performer, accounting for more than one-third of the total household toilets constructed during last year. Eleven states including Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya and Tripura did not report com-pletion of even a single such toilet while Uttar Pradesh improved its position by completing 1.78 lakh toilets.

In the community and public toilet category, all states and Union territories reported the construction of 68,500 toilets. Tamil Nadu, Delhi and MP did better than other states, nine of which, including West Bengal, Kerala and

Himachal, reported zero completion. Work had com-menced in 1.4 lakh cases, the ministry reported.

In door-to-door garbage collection, out of the total tar-get to cover nearly 40,000 municipal wards, the achieve-ment was about 35,000.

In Andhra Pradesh, against the mission target of con-struction of 194,336 individual household toilets in urban areas, work has started on 153,779 toilets and 104,732 toi-lets have been completed. In addition to the central assis-tance of Rs 4,000 per toilet, Andhra is extending an addi-tional assistance of Rs 11,000 per toilet, giving a boost to the programme.

urBan news digest | may 2016 • 6 urBan news digest | march 2016 • 6green cities

Indian Railways proposes to harness 1000 Mega Watt (MW) solar and 150 MW wind energy by the year 2020.

A total of about 50 MW renewable energy capac-ity has been installed till date including approxi-mately 11 MW solar power and 37 MW wind power. In addition, installation of 6.5 MW is in progress and for about 50 MW solar capacities, Request For Qual-ification (RFQ) has been issued by Zonal Railways.

For harnessing renewable energy sources for Railway requirements, the mechanism put in place include the signing of Memorandum of Understand-ing (MoU) between Ministry of Railways and Minis-try of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), finalisa-tion of Model Bid documents for rooftop solar power plants etc. with the financial support of MNRE. Based on these Model Bid Documents, Zonal Rail-ways have floated tender documents for installation of solar rooftop plants at Railways premises.

Such renewable energy plants are being put up in Railways in an economical manner to reduce the cost of energy with Viable Gap Funding (VGF) from Ministry of New & Renewable Energy.

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval for utilisation of 400 hectares of uncultivable farmland at the Cen-tral State Farm (CSF), Jetsar in Sri Ganganagar Dis-trict, Rajasthan for setting up of a solar Power Plant of a capacity exceeding 200 MW. The land is presently in the possession of National Seeds Corporation (NSC), a Cen-tral Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the adminis-trative control of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farm-ers Welfare. The Solar Power Plant will be set up by a CPSE, which would be selected through negotiation.

NSC will provide 400 hectares of uncultivable land, out of the 5394 hectares under its possession to the identified CPSE, which will bear the costs relating to the installation of the Solar Power Plant. The selected CPSE will have to do tariff based competitive bidding for the project. It will be allowed to utilize the land for the installation of a Solar Power Plant over a contract period of 25 years, which may be extended on mutually agreed terms and conditions, after which the entire plant will

be surrendered to the NSC on as is where is the basis. The Project, by utilising the uncultivable land for a Solar

Power Project, will yield revenue for NSC and will also generate clean energy for the nation.

Cabinet approves 200 MW Solar Power Plant at Jetsar, Rajasthan

Rameswaram railway station nominated as Green Station

Indian Railways proposes to utilise Green and Renewable Energy

Rameswaram Railway station’, which falls under the Madurai division, has been nominated as a ‘Green sta-tion’ with full complement of bio-toilets in all coaches leaving from the town, a top railway official informed.

Addressing the 61st railway week celebrations, Sunil Kumar Garg, Railway Divisional manager, stated that the Madurai Junction had been ranked one among the 10 top cleanest stations under ‘A1’ category in the country.

He said a mechanised BOOT (Built, Own, Operate, Transfer) laundry of four ton capacity would soon be commissioned in Madurai to improve quality of linen supplied to passengers.

In terms of earnings, the Divisions originating earn-ings for 2015-16 was Rs 735.14 crore as against last year’s Rs.723.36 crore.

While, the passenger earnings was Rs 440.82 crore as against Rs 414. 66 crore of last year.

In freight transport, the division loaded 2.1035 mil-lion tons last year, with earnings of Rs 237.30 crore, he said. The division has completed works on passenger amenities worth Rs 7.17 crore last year, Garg informed.

The shortfalls in Minimum Essential Amenities as

per Railway board norms in stations would be fulfilled at a cost of Rs two crore this year, he said.

On gauge conversion and doubling works, he stated that the Sengottai-Punalur GC work was progressing well and is targeted for completion this year.

The second line between Tiruchchirappalli and Manaparai has become operational from April 1 2016, he said.

Doubling work in Dindigul-Tamaraippadi section had also been completed, he added.

Punjab CM inaugurates rooftop solar power plantChief Minister of Punjab Parkash Singh Badal has inau-gurated a solar power plant spread over 42 acres on the Dera Baba Jaimal Singh (Radha Soami sect) premises in Amritsar, which the government said is the world’s largest single rooftop facility. The plant has the capac-ity to produce 11.5MW electricity.

With this, the Rs 139-crore solar energy plant has become the country’s largest, with solar panels spread over 82 acres on eight rooftops of sheds and a capacity to generate 19.5 MW. The project would generate 27 mil-lion units of electricity per annum, enough to cater to the electricity needs of approximately 8,000 households.

Badal was accompanied by New and Renewable Energy Resources Minister Bikram Majithia.

A power purchase agreement (PPA) has been signed between the Dera and the Punjab State Power Corpora-tion Limited (PSPCL) for 25 years.

The first phase (7.5 MW) of this project was allotted in September 2013 and synchronised with the grid in April 2014. Later, the second phase (12 MW) was allotted in February 2015 and synchronised in December 2015.

Badal lauded the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) for ushering in a solar-power revolu-tion in the state.

Badal said the state-of-the-art project set up by the Radha Soami Satsang Beas Educational and Environ-mental Society (RSSBEES) in technical collaboration

with PEDA would go a long way in motivating the other states to duplicate such projects to generate clean and green energy.

Elaborating the environmental-friendly benefits, Majithia said the project would mean abating four lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the next 25 years.

Majithia also pointed out that the Centre has set a target of power generation of 40,000 MW from differ-ent resources of renewable energy to be achieved by 2022 and this project would be a role model to encour-age other states to replicate such large rooftops on the building/sheds.

Punjab had been producing only 9MW of renew-able energy till February 2012, which has now gone up to 470MW and is expected to touch 1,080MW by year-end, he said.

urBan news digest | may 2016 • 7connected cities

The Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the Manesar-Pal-wal section of the Kundli- Manesar-Palwal Expressway in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishna Pal Gurjar in Palwal. Speaking on the occasion Gadkari said that the project had earlier been languishing for several years. However the Centre and the Haryana Government resolved the issues plagu-ing it and the 52.33 Km long section of the expressway has been completed in a record time of eleven months. He said that Eastern and Western Peripheral Express-ways are targeted for completion within 400 days from the start of the project. Once the two peripheral expressways are ready, the traffic congestion in Delhi would come down by 50%, pollution levels would be reduced and the farmers, traders and the people of the region as a whole would benefit due to better connectiv-ity. Gadkari reiterated his Government’s commitment to bringing in policies aimed at improving the condi-tion of villages, poor people, farmers and labourers. He said strong infrastructure plays a major role in foster-ing development.

The Manesar-Palwal section of the Expressway has been built at a cost of Rs 457.81 crores. It is an access

controlled, six-lane, divided road with a 1.5-metre wide paved shoulder on each side. It intersects with Delhi-Jaipur NH8 near Manesar, Palwal-Sohna-Rewari NH 919, Sohna-Nuh-Alwar Road NH 248A and finally joins NH2 near Palwal. The road would provide uninter-rupted high –speed link for traffic, especially commer-cial traffic from Haryana to neighbouring states. It will also decongest road traffic through Delhi by allowing bypass of traffic not destined for Delhi. Roadside ame-nities are under development. The road also has sev-eral underpasses, cattle crossing underpasses, agricul-tural vehicle underpasses bridges, pedestrian crossing underpasses and box culverts.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that after having just four National Highways for so many years, Haryana has got nine new National High-ways in the last one and a half years. He said that the Kundli-Palwal section of the Western Peripheral Expressway will be completed within this year.

Speaking on the occasion Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishna Pal Gurjar com-mended the Haryana government on having speedily completed a project that was languishing for so long. He said that the Government at the Centre was com-mitted to building sound infrastructure in the country.

Transport minister unveils a part of Western Peripheral Expressway

Government accords high priority to rail connectivity in the Northeast: Dr Jitendra Singh

Indian government grants approval for 14 greenfield airports

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Devel-opment of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh has said that the Union Gov-ernment has hiked the Northeast Railway Budget by as much as 151% within the last two years of its term.

Stating this while addressing the ‘Global Rail Conven-tion’ organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the total Budget outlay fixed by the present government for 2016-17 is Rs 5,340 crore. This, he said, is manifold higher than the average Budget out-lay during the five years of 2009-10 to 2013-14 of the earlier UPA government when it stood at just Rs 2,121.6 crore in

comparison to the average Budget outlay during 2014 to 2016 which is Rs 5,316.3 crore.

Dr Jitendra Singh said the high priority given to con-nectivity in the Northeast including the rail network is borne out by the fact that within six months of the taking over of the present government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during one of his visits to the Northeast, inaugu-rated the first ever Rail link to Meghalaya and around the same time, Arunachal Pradesh was also brought on the Rail map of India. Similarly, he said, Akhaura-Agartala-Bangladesh is going to be a game changer and the Min-istry of Railways has offered to contribute Rs 580 crore for construction of railway track on the Indian side while for across the border, funds will be borne by Ministry of External Affairs.

Referring to fast-track movement of rail expansion in

Northeast, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the long-time pend-ing work on the broad-gauge track was expedited in the last two years and during the year 2015-16, over 500 km of broad-gauge railway track was laid in the region. This includes the broad-gauge track to Agartala which became functional on February 20, 2016, and also Kathakat-Bhai-rabi in Mizoram.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that the overall connectivity, including rail and road network, to the Northeast is a major priority of the present government, because this will also pave the way for growth in the areas of tourism, rev-enue, and trade. In addition, he said, the innovative work on laying down of waterways along the Brahmaputra up to the Bay of Bengal has also been undertaken which will not only prove to be an alternative means of transport but also be much more cost effective.

The Indian government has given ‘in-principle’ approval for the development of 14 new greenfield airports.

The airports would be created in Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Puducherry and Gujarat. Notably, the Sik-kim hub would be the Himalayan state’s first airport.

The government has also laid down Route Disper-sal Guidelines (RDG) of air transport services, tak-ing into account the needs of different regions of the

country. However, India’s airlines would be able to choose whether to provide services to these regions or not, depending on their commercial viability.

The financing and development of the greenfield airports would be the responsibility of the airport developer.

Four of the new airports would be developed in Kar-nataka, located in Shimoga, Gulbarga, Hassan and Bija-pur. While, a further three would be in Maharashtra located in Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg.

The other states and territories which would see one new airport are Mopa in Goa, Kannur in Kerala, Pak-yong in Sikkim, Datia/Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, Karaikal in Puducherry and Dholera in Gujarat.

First semi high-speed Gatimaan Express launched in India

Indian Railways has launched the Gatimaan Express, the first semi-high speed train with a maximum speed of 160kph. Inaugurated by India’s Minister of Rail-ways, Suresh Prabhu, the train will run between Del-hi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin Station and Agra.

The express train will run every day except Friday departing Delhi at 08:10 and arriving in Agra at 09:50. The return journey will leave Agra at 17:50 and arrive back in Delhi at 19:30.

Tickets are priced at Rs 750 (approx $11.30) for the coach class and Rs 1500 for executive class.

The onboard catering is organised by Indian Rail-ways Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which has deployed hostesses on the train. IRCTC has also introduced two comprehensive packages for the fast-est train in India – a full-day Agra Guided Tour Pack-age (City of Love and Heritage) and 1N/2 Days Package (with stay in a 5 star hotel).

The tariff for the full-day package, which includes guided visit to the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, lunch at a reputed local restaurant, AC vehicle for sightseeing, entry ticket to monuments and time for shopping, has been fixed at Rs 2100 for an Indian adult and Rs 2000 for a child (5-11 years).

The tariff for the two-day package is Rs 14,500 (sin-gle occupancy), Rs 10,800 (double occupancy) and Rs 10,300 (triple occupancy). For child with bed (5-11 years), the tariff has been fixed at Rs 7000 and for child without bed (5-11 years), it is Rs 3800. Prices for foreign tourists have been kept a little higher.

Passengers can choose either of the options while booking tickets on the IRCTC portal. Once payment is confirmed on the gateway for tickets for Gatimaan Express, passengers can see a pop up of the Taj Mahal with a ‘Book Now’ message. Tickets for the Agra pack-ages can be booked by clicking on it. Alternatively, spot purchases for the tour packages can also be made dur-ing the 100-minute journey onboard the train. The train will also have complimentary onboard entertain-ment provided by MyFreeTv.in.

urBan news digest | may 2016 • 8huMane CITIeS

Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu announced that approvals for housing applications in Delhi will be made online, in order to bring transpar-ency in the housing sector.

The new mechanism, once successful in the capi-tal, would be put in force in other cities as well, he said, while warning real estate developers not to cheat the consumers.

“I would like to warn (real estate developers) with strict action. They cannot take our consumers for a ride,” Naidu said in Lok Sabha replying to a brief debate on the demand for a grant for the Housing and Poverty

Alleviation Ministry, a charge he also holds.“The approvals for housing in Delhi will be made

online. There will be no person-to-person contact.”The builders will face strict action if they fail to meet

time schedule given for completion of the housing proj-ects, warned the Minister.

The new online system of clearing applications will be started by May end in Delhi, he said amid cheers up from a section of treasury bench.

The new measure will be replicated in Mumbai and then across the nation, the Minister informed.

Naidu said that the government has set a target of

Housing for All by 2022 which is a challenging target.He said it requires huge budgetary allocations for

which his ministry has approached the Finance Min-ister Arun Jaitley while appealing to the states to send housing project proposals for speedy approval.Naidu said that the Real Estate (Regulation and Devel-opment) Act, 2016 has come into effect from May 1 and will help eliminate unscrupulous players who attract the consumers by lucrative hoardings about the hous-ing projects.

The Minister said 83,000 houses have been approved in last few months.

Approval for housing applications to be online: M Venkaiah Naidu

Lok Sabha clears Real Estate Bill 2016The Lok Sabha has approved the Real Estate (Reg-ulation and Development) Bill, 2016. The bill seeks to create a set of rights and obligations for both the consumers and developers and encourage both of them to live up to the expectations of each other as per the agreement entered into by both of them.

Moving the Bill pending in the Lok Sabha after it got passed in the Rajya Sabha on March 6, Min-ister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, M Venkaiah Naidu clarified the position on the issues such as how the Bill will be applicable to existing projects; the Rules on setting aside 70% of cus-tomer advances in an escrow account; compulsory approvals prior to project launches, and payment of similar interest rate to customers as charged from them for delays will impact launches and increase compliance costs.

The Minister assured the industry that with the establishment of a regulatory mechanism, there would be greater flow of investment, both national and foreign into the sector, resulting in reduction in cost of borrowing.

The Bill requires project promoters to register their projects with the Regulatory Authorities dis-closing project information including details of pro-moter, project including schedule of implementa-tion, lay out plan, land status, status of approvals, agreements along with details of real estate agents, contractors, architects, structural engineers etc. Naidu said that this enabled transparent, account-able and timely execution of projects.

The Minister further said that the Real Estate Bill, 2016 enables the people to meet their genuine aspirations of owning a house including those of urban poor by giving a fillip to affordable housing initiative under which the Government intends to enable construction of two crore rupees by the year 2022 under Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana (Urban).

PM Modi launches Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana at BalliaPrime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana at Ballia which aims to provide cooking gas connections to five crore below-poverty-line beneficiaries over the next three years.

Noting that May 1 is observed as Labour Day, the Prime Minister said that in this century, the aim of all workers across the world should be to unite the world.

Reiterating that the Union Government’s pri-mary focus has been the welfare of the poor, the Prime Minister mentioned various steps for labour welfare taken by the Union Government over the last two years. He mentioned the Shram Suvidha Portal and the Labour Identity Number is given to Shramiks.

The Prime Minister recalled that Ballia is the land of the revolutionary Mangal Pandey, and said that while the development of Eastern Uttar Pradesh has suffered for decades, connectivity is now being strengthened in the region. He said the Union Gov-ernment is allocating tremendous resources for the development of Uttar Pradesh. He mentioned the rapid progress that has been made in rural electrifi-cation. He said the fruits of development must reach the eastern part of India, for us to gain strength in the fight against poverty.

The Prime Minister emphasised that schemes must be designed keeping in mind the welfare of the poor, and not merely to derive electoral benefit. He said that the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana will benefit the poor, especially the women.

urBan news digest | may 2016 • 9dIgITal CITIeS

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu launched ‘Fast Wi-Fi for All’ service at the Bhubaneswar railway station in partnership with Google. The Bhubaneswar station is the second to be covered under the free Wi-Fi project after Mumbai Central in January this year.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu accompanied by Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, launched the Wi-Fi service which will benefit 1.4 lakh visitors at Bhubaneswar station daily.

Google and RailTel, under the Digital India initia-tive, have collaborated to make Wi-Fi network available across 100 stations to deliver high-speed Internet to 10 million Indians a day by the end of this year.

The Railway Minister also informed that Odisha will

figure as one of the most developed state in the country in next three-four years and the railways would contrib-ute a lot towards this.

The Railway Minister also announced that similar service will be made available at Puri Railway Station ahead of Lord Jagannth’s annual Rath Yatra in July this year. The project will eventually be rolled out to cover 400 railway stations across India.

He said there are plans to set up two rail projects in Odisha, one of which is at Narla in Kalahandi district. Prabhu also said that a joint venture company would be formed to maintain coordination between the Cen-tre and the State for speeding up various ongoing rail-way projects in Odisha.

Bhubaneswar railway station gets Fast Wi-Fi for All

Railways to unveil two mobile applications

SMS-based Vehicle Monitoring System that reports vehicle theft

Indian Railways is at an advanced stage of launch-ing two mobile applications — one to incorporate all ticketing related activities and the other to integrate all non-ticketing related functions, which includes managing accounts, HR, train operations, freight yards, wagon booking, freight booking, locomo-tives, coaches, tendering for vendors, sale of scrap, and awarding works contracts.

The Railways has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the development of applications in the field of Remote Sensing and a Geographic Information System.

The MoU is aimed at developing applications such as an advance warning system at Unmanned Railway Crossings for road users, mapping of the Railways’ assets through Geospatial technology, developing a paperless unreserved ticketing solution based on geo-fencing of the station area, in addition to a real-time Train Information System using Com-munication Satellite Services.

The Railways has also introduced a facility to cancel tickets bought over the counter using mobile phones.

A mobile-based real-time system for handling passenger complaints along with social media inte-gration (Facebook and Twitter) is also being fine-tuned. Apps for women in distress are also in the works.

An SMS-based Vehicle Monitoring System, con-ceived by the Nagaland Police Department, has been developed to provide an easy platform for policemen and citizens to report vehicle theft and alert the various field formations of police across the state by sending one SMS.

The project has been executed by Ben Imchen, a post-graduate from IIT Delhi and proprietor of Elysium Enterprises.

Launched in April of last year the project has

resulted in substantial reduction in theft of four-wheelers across the state while more than 100 vehicles have been recovered so far using the application.

Recently, the SMS-based Vehicle Monitoring System of Nagaland police bagged the National Award for Smart Policing instituted by Federa-tion of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Indus-try (FICCI).

Indian railways launch Wi-Fi service at three more stationsExpanding the high-speed internet network facility, Railways has launched the Google’s free Wi-Fi service at Vijayawada, Kachiguda and Raipur stations.

“As part of the Digital India initiative, we have plans for providing Wi-Fi facilities at a total of 400 major sta-tions out of which 100 stations will be equipped this year,” Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said follow-ing the launch of the service at three stations through video-conferencing from New Delhi.

The Wi-Fi facility at these stations has been com-missioned by Railway Ministry PSU RailTel in asso-ciation with Google for providing high-speed internet to the passengers.

Prabhu stated that once the facility becomes oper-ational in all 400 stations, then it would be the biggest Wi-Fi infrastructure in public place in the world.

Approximately 3 crore people are estimated to be able to use the Wi-Fi facility with the commissioning of 400 stations.

The Minister had previously launched the Wi-Fi service at Bhubaneswar and Mumbai Central stations.

RailTel CMD RK Bahuguna said, “our intent was to fulfill Indian Railway’s vision of providing passengers access to high-speed internet through our optical fiber communication network.”

urBan news digest | may 2016 • 10focus city

Jaipur is the largest city in Rajasthan and was built in the 18th century by Sawai Jai Singh as India’s first

planned city. During the regime of Sawai Ram Singh, the whole city was painted pink to welcome Edward, Prince of Wales from that time onwards Jaipur is also known as Pink City. This royal place is rich in heritage, culture and architecture. With splendid fortresses, majestic palaces, tranquil temples and beautiful havelis - Jaipur turns out to be an ideal tourist destination. It is not just the royal buildings and palaces that this city offers. Other than these captivating attractions, Jaipur displays exquisite handicrafts and spectacular jewellery products. These intricate works of art add life and colour to this Pink City’s uniqueness. Also, the serenity of lush gardens and floral array acts as the cherry on the cake of fabu-lous landscapes. All this makes a picturesque view that tends to enthral any visitor.

Jaipur is among the fastest emerging metropolis of the nation. Owing to a good urban planning, sound infrastructure and modern amenities, Jaipur is a per-fect destination suited for business and living. Industri-alisation thrives in the city in the form of 19 well-devel-oped industrial areas housing 19,544 small scale and 50 medium and large scale units, two world class Special Economic Zones (SEZs), an Export Promotion Indus-trial Park (EPIP) and two IT Parks. Jaipur is linked to Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Agra and Bhopal through four to six lane highways.

DemographicsIn 2011, Jaipur had a population of 3,073,350 and it is the 10th largest city of India. While 47.49% of the peo-ple lived in rural areas, 52.51% lived in urban areas. The overall literacy rate for the district was 76.44%. Around 87% of males and 65% females are literate. The sex ratio is 898 females per 1,000 males. By 2016, Jaipur is esti-mated with a population of 44.51 lakhs and by 2025, the population of the Jaipur region would reach 75.62 lakhs.

InfrastructureFor the purpose of arriving at the infrastructure require-ments, the projected population of the region for the horizon year 2025 has been used as 75.62 lakhs. The UDPFI (Urban Development Plan Formulation and Implementation) guidelines for urban areas have been used. It may be noted that seven lakhs populations out of this would be in the villages. However, due to unavail-ability of standards for rural areas, the same have been assumed for the rural component of the JDA Region. The requirements of the towns have not been covered because in addition to Bagru, Chomu and the earlier pro-posed towns, new towns would come up by 2025 which have been dealt separately. There are other infrastruc-ture and other facilities which are required like police

station, community halls, etc. but are quantitatively insignificant at the region level and to be attended at the city level with spatial proposals. Hence, these have not been considered at the region level.

HousingThe Master Development Plan (MDP) 2011 in its imple-mentation has witnessed a surge in the residential devel-opment in the whole of Jaipur Region. The conversion demand spread across the region. The increase and con-centration of actual development can be seen only within 227 sq kms; however the applications for residential con-version are beyond the urbanisable area of MDP 2011. It requires and continues to require restrictions on the use and occupation of land. The housing shortage is expected to reach 2,78,412 by 2025.

In general, the housing policy is to give the qualita-tive neighbourhood planning to the public at large for serene living. The inner core of the neighbourhood is to be ensured with primarily residential areas and the sec-ondary activities to be limited to the peripheral 18 meter and above roads.

Malviya Nagar is an affluent region in South Jaipur and is close to Durgapura, Jawahar Nagar, Jagatpura and Sanganer. The region is a buzzing commercial cen-tre with many industrial and commercial units. The place has its share of excellent schools, colleges, hospi-tals, multiplexes and malls which cater to the whole city. Malviya Nagar is well-connected to the public transport system.

Mansarovar is one of the peripheral regions of Jai-pur. It is located in the south-west of Jaipur. The region forms an established part of the city. The Amanishah Nala separates Mansarovar from the mainland city. The entire region is well planned with parallel roads travers-ing at some points. The region has been developed and the population enjoy almost all the comforts of the city.

The region has some fine markets, restaurants, hospitals and health clinics and educational institutes.

IT/ ITES Zone in JaipurSpread over 750 acres, the IT/ TES Zone has been noti-fied by the Ministry of Commerce. Set up exclusively for IT/ITES companies catering to the global markets, Mahindra World City, Jaipur offers a modern plug–n–play infrastructure including optic fibre cable net-work, quality satellite linkage as well as voice and data solutions.This zone also offers a host of other advantages including:• Strategic location, thereby leading to lower opera-

tional costs• Developed land parcels for independent campuses

of five acres and above• Built-to-suit facilities for customised and tailor

made solutionsThe zone houses some of the leading customers like Deutsche Bank, Genpact, Infosys, MetLife, Nucleus Soft-ware, EXL, Systweak Software and The Phone Support.

TransportationA regional bypass is proposed to serve Jaipur Region and its hinter land Jaipur District. It is ideal to have a 30 kms road for regional bypass. However a 38 kms circular development with a length of 238 kms is utopian by using the network parts of MDR /SH /NH in and around 238 kms. On approach has been worked out and the following provision emerged for development of regional bypass.

The U-1 area and the U-2 area are proposed with a definite road network to accommodate various develop-ment proposals. The development proposed sector level roads and regional roads when compared with existing village road network the development was at snail space. In order to avoid no growth situation in case of non devel-opment of sector road the following proposals have been worked out. Instead of giving a definite road width cre-ation of building line is emphasised. This pave way for the conversion of compatible uses from agricultural land to non-agriculture purposes by adhering to the building line. More over a definite time capsule cannot be given for the development of the rural area which may take at least 30 years from now.

The proposed regional bypass and ring road cou-pled with U-2 area road network serve majority of sat-ellite towns and growth centres provided in the develop-ment plan.

Finally the best substitute of the proposed ring road is to strengthen the existing connectivity of connect-ing all the growth nodes of the region. The map depicts the alternative routes acting as ring road. The pres-ent existing network of the region has already a good surface transport option. This option works out as an

Urban development transforms Jaipur into a modern city

11 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | MAY 2016 focus city

outer ring road concept, which is almost parallel to the existing ring road and connect all the potential towns of the region.

Jaipur Bus Rapid Transit Service (BRTS)To cater to the city’s increasing traffic in the next 15 to 20 years, the Indian government approved Jaipur Bus Rapid Transit Service (BRTS) in August 2006. Under this, two corridors were proposed in Phase 1. First was Sikar Road to Tonk Road – North-South Corridor and the second was Ajmer Road to Delhi Road East-West Corridor. Work on other section of North-South Corridor and East-West Cor-ridor has also commenced. The 42 kms of BRTS phase 1 would cost `469 crore. While the North-South Corridor will be a length of 26 kms, the other would be of 16 kms.

Jaipur MetroJaipur Metro Rail Corporation is a young and vibrant organisation all set to change the picture of the Pink City of Jaipur. JMRC is an enormous PSU under Government of Rajasthan. It has been recorded fastest to conduct of trial run in India, so far. It was a historic moment for Jai-pur on 18 September 2013. The city got its Metro and that too in a record time - two years and nine months.

The much awaited metro is going to be commenced on March 31, 2015 for which Nihal Chand Goyal, Chair-man-cum-Managing Director of the Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation visited metro stations of the phase IA to check the preparedness. So that they receives the clari-fication of the safety and others certificates for the com-mercial run.

E-governanceE-Mitra is an ambitious e-governance initiative of Gov-ernment of Rajasthan (GoR) which is being imple-mented in all 33 districts of the state using Public-Pri-vate Partnership (PPP) model for convenience and transparency to citizens in availing various services of the Government and Private Sectors under a single roof at their door steps using an e-platform. The ser-vices are delivered via counters known as CSC (Com-mon Service Centre) kiosks in rural areas and e-Mitra kiosks in urban areas and also online via www.emitra.gov.in. Hence, these counters provide services related to various departments in an integrated and easily accessi-ble manner to people residing in rural as well as urban areas without any need for running around in govern-ment offices. The project has been operational since 2005. Initially it was functioning through a client server based application software developed by Department

of IT&C. In 2010, the old Client Server Application was migrated to web-based on-line e-Mitra application across all the 33 districts. Recently, a new generic mod-ule has been added to e-Mitra portal which allows end to end application and delivery of “Digitally Signed Cer-tificates” such as Bonafide, Caste, Income, Solvency etc.

Culture and TourismJaipur is a major tourist attraction amongst Indian as well as international travellers. It belongs to the tourist Golden Triangle of Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. It hosts sev-eral attractions like the City Palace, Govind Devji Tem-ple, Vidhan Sabha, Birla Temple, several massive Rajput forts and so on. It also serves as a stepping stone for trav-ellers heading to the desert cities of Jodhpur and Jais-almer. Visitors are also attracted to the Hawa Mahal, Jal Mahal, City Palace, Amer Fort, Jantar Mantar, Naha-rgarh Fort, Jaigarh Fort, Sri Kali Temple, Sanganeri Gate and the Jaipur Zoo. Cultural centres like Jawahar Kala Kendra and Ravindra Manch have helped promote the culture of the state of Rajasthan. Albert Hall Museum (Government Central Museum) hosts several arts and antiquities.

Sanganer, a town situated 16 kms south of Jaipur, is famous for textile printing, handmade paper industry, and for Jain temples. Sanganer prints are one of its own kinds, for the reason that patterns in bright colors are always printed on white backgrounds. Sanganeri hand block printing received the geographical indication (GI) tag in 2010.

Bandhani is a type of tie-dye practiced mainly in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, India. The term bandhani is derived from the Sanskrit word banda (to tie). Bandhani is also known as Bandhej or tie-dye or Bandhni or Bandana, etc. as per the regional pronunci-ation. The main colours used in Bandhani are natural. In fact all colours in bandhani are dark, no light colour is used, and the background is mostly in black / red cloth.

The land of Jaipur has its own performing arts. The Jaipur Gharana for Kathak is widely popular and appar-ently an example of rich cultural heritage of Jaipur as far as performing arts is concerned. Tamasha is another

such example.The Pink City Jaipur presents to you scrumptious

cuisines that are known throughout India; dishes like Dal Bati Churma, Missi Roti, and sweets like Ghevar, Feeni, Gajak, Chauguni ke Laddu, Moong Thal, Laal Maas to name a few.

Master Development PlanThe Master Development Plan-2025 covers all aspects of development including transportation, infrastructure (sewer, drainage, water and electric-ity), environmental protection, and land uses (res-idential, commercial, industrial, recreational, etc.). The Master Plan analyses current demographic sta-tistics and economic issues, factors to project growth scenarios, propose solutions that mitigate negative impacts of traffic, assess infrastructure capacity, and public service needs, and allocate land as needed to ensure adequate land availability and to be able to utilise them for both present and future needs of the residents.

ChallengesPopulation is one of the toughest challenges so far- growing pollution, congestion, energy guzzling, as public transport, walking and public health. Besides, to cope with the fast growing urban population, and meet its future needs, Jaipur needs to have sensible urban transformation, efficient citizen centric ser-vices, and a responsive civic system that can stimu-late sustainable growth and improve the quality of lives of its residents. Another challenge of Jaipur is improving the damaged drainage system. Another important challenge, the Pink City faces is that of air pollution which has reached a critical level as a result of growing number of vehicles and resultant conges-tion. A proactive approach will help. With recent advances in technology, we can infuse our existing infrastructures with new intelligence. This means digitising and connecting our systems, so they can sense, analyse and integrate data, and respond intel-ligently to the needs of their jurisdictions.

urBan news digest | may 2016 • 12vibrant cities

According to a survey by travel planning and booking site Trip Advisor, the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in Punjab has been ranked number third on the Travel-lers’ Choice Landmarks—India list.

The Harmandir Sahibm, which is the holiest Gurd-wara of Sikhism, is surrounded by a Sarovar which is fed by river Ravi. The temple’s construction was completed in 1604 and currently runs one of the largest free kitchens in the world that serves an average 1,00,000 people daily.

The Taj Mahal in Agra has been voted among the top five tourist attractions in the world, second in Asia and led the popularity list in India.

Award winners were determined by means of an algo-rithm which took into account the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings for landmarks worldwide, collected over a period of 12-months.

“India has a rich cultural history which is often reflected in the architectural landmarks that we’ve built and any recognition on the world stage is truly well deserved,” said Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, Trip Advisor India.

The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage.”

The Amber Fort in Jaipur also figured eighth on the list of the Travellers’ Choice Landmarks in Asia.

The Bandra-Worli Sea Link which connects Bandra, located in the western suburbs of Mumbai to Worli in

South Mumbai is another popular tourist attraction in the country. The 5.6km structure across the Arabian Sea is considered to be one of the biggest cable-stayed bridges in the world.

The fifth most popular in the list from India is the Swaminarayan Akshardham, which stands on a sprawl-ing 100-acre campus built on the banks of the river Yamuna. The temple showcases architectural styles from

all over India. It has been awarded the World’s Largest Comprehensive Hindu Temple by the Guinness World Records.

The Agra Fort in Agra, the Qutab Minar, the Shree Siddhivinayak in Mumbai, the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodh-pur and Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in Delhi figure in the top 10 list of popular destinations among travellers in the country.

Golden Temple voted 3rd most popular attraction in India: Survey

Charting a medical tourism map of IndiaFrom ancient times, India has been a centre for medicine and healthcare. The history books reveal a plethora of facts into the country’s medical past when great pioneers such as Charaka and Sushruta made ingenious break-throughs in Ayurvedic medicine.

In recent times, India’s tradition as a tourist hub has been paralleled by its distinction as a medical tourism destination, a rare confluence of warm ‘hospitality’ and state-of-the-art ‘hospitals.’

Medical tourism, a unique term which adds new dimensions to the concept of ‘wellness,’ refers to the travel of people to another country for the purpose of obtain-ing medical treatment in that country. Nilaya Varma, Partner (Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare), KPMG, puts it as, “Medical value travel is the term that has been preferred to refer to the trend of patients seek-ing healthcare beyond borders. The operative word here being ‘value’, since patients seek value when they choose to undertake travel for healthcare.”

“Medical tourism or travel for health comprises of 2 different segments. One segment comprises of people who travel to other countries for rejuvenation purposes, and the other segment comprises of people who travel for curative care that is not available in their countries. While the former is a luxury segment, the latter is econ-omy,” Varma adds.

Above all, it is for critical, terminal, specialist, inten-sive and tertiary care and treatment that foreigners seek India. Traditionally, India has been welcoming critical cases from Iraq, Nigeria, Tanzania, Oman, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the CIS, among others.

“Medical tourism in India is a fast growing segment. Hospitals participating in medical tourism are increasing focus on niche segments; hospitals specialising in den-tal, reproductive and wellness are also forming a sizeable portion of Indian medical tourism,” said Dr Sudarshan

Ballal, Chairman of Manipal Health Enterprises.Favoured destinations in India are led by Andhra

Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra.

“Due to the establishment of some of the earliest med-ical schools in the southern states of India, healthcare infrastructure available here is of high standards. This also resulted in the creation of a pool of clinical schools and entrepreneurial skills made available to the medical tourism industry to help facilitate growth at a faster pace than the rest of the states,” Varma says.

At present, Chennai caters to 40% of the medical tour-ism in India, making it the top destination for treatment. Delhi NCR with some premier hospitals such as Medanta has emerged preferred destination on the medical tour-ism map. Even Kerala aims to become India’s healthcare hub in five years.

As per data published by the Indian Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), the overall Indian healthcare mar-ket is worth $100 billion and is expected to grow to $280 billion by 2020, a CAGR of 22.9%.

“The Indian medical tourism industry is pegged at $3 billion per annum, with tourist arrivals estimated at 2,30,000. The Indian medical tourism industry is

expected to reach $6 billion by 2018, with the number of people arriving in the country for medical treatment set to double over the next 4 years,” IBEF informs.

India, as a medical tourism destination, is known for high-class treatment at affordable costs. The country’s cost arbitrage gives it a definite edge over other countries. Medical treatment in India facilitates savings of 30-70% on total expenditure.

“The right ingredients for an active medical tourism programme are skilled doctors, state-of-the-art medi-cal facilities capable of providing excellent medical care, especially in niche areas like transplants, joint replace-ments, cancer therapy, heart disease, and bariatric sur-gery, for a fraction of the cost in their home countries, in a country that is well-connected, safe, and has good infra-structure,” Dr Ballal states.

“Indian doctors and their reputation globally is a definitive advantage, along with cost effectiveness, which in many fields is about 20% or less of the cost in the West-ern world. Also, snazzy medical facilities and proficiency in English have upped India’s reputation as a medical tourism hub,” he adds.

Meanwhile, in order to improve the country’s role in medical tourism, the Government of India has taken up initiatives for the promotion and augmentation of the industry, such as offering a separate category of medical visa, which can be extended for an additional 12 months beyond the one-year issue period. In addition, a no-hin-drance-clearance has been provided for medical tourists at the airports.

For the accreditation of hospitals, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has set up a National Accred-itation Board for Hospitals, under the Ministry of Com-merce, while there are plans to build 50 tourism circuits, along with a medical circuit connecting hubs of modern medicine and Ayurveda.

Trams get renovated to commemorate Kolkata’s colonial-era heritageTen trams in Kolkata were renovated into mini-auditori-ums for films, theatre and music as part of ‘Tram Tales’ initiative, a unique two-day event.

Various media like films, videos, music, art, photog-raphy, games, food and even ‘adda,’ were used to cele-brate the nostalgia of trams as a symbol of Kolkata’s rich colonial-era heritage.

The 10 non-working streetcars at Gariahat tram

depot were renovated to make one of a kind common platform within the city where youths, painters, rock bands, singers, artists and others came together.

A couple of the trams were fitted with small projec-tion screens and turned into mini cinema halls, said Anirban Kundu, Marketing Head-East of Max Fash-ion, who partnered in the event.

Trams were also turned into a stage for theatre

groups who performed inside the streetcar.Bands like ‘Ganesh Talkies,’ ‘Underground Author-

ity,’ ‘Neel Sarkar Project’ and others were invited to per-form inside the trams.

One of the trams was also turned into a small cafe partnering with a local coffee shop for people to have their own ‘adda’ sessions.

A tram was also painted by painters of the city.

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urBan news digest | may 2016 • 14SpecialFeatures woRkIng CITIeS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the progress of Aadhar and Direct Benefit Transfer programmes at a high-level meeting recently.

In the course of the two-hour meeting, the Prime Minister was informed about the progress made in Aad-har number generation, and seeding of official databases with Aadhar numbers to streamline the process of iden-tification of beneficiaries, and to ensure proper target-ing of benefits to the people. It was informed that in 2015-16, an amount of over Rs 61,000 crore was distributed to over 30 crore beneficiaries, using Direct Benefit Trans-fer. This includes over Rs 25,000 crore in MGNREGS,

and over Rs 21,000 crore in PAHAL (for LPG).DBT has resulted in significant savings across wel-

fare schemes. It has also resulted in weeding out of duplicate beneficiaries. For instance, over 1.6 crore bogus ration cards have been deleted, resulting in sav-ings of about Rs 10,000 crore. Similarly, 3.5 crore dupli-cate beneficiaries were weeded out in the PAHAL scheme, resulting in savings of over Rs 14,000 crore in 2014-15 alone. In MGNREGS too, a saving of Rs 3000 crore (roughly 10%) has been estimated in 2015-16. The several States and Union Territories too have achieved significant savings through DBT.

The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of creating a platform that is error-free, and would ensure that the targeted beneficiaries receive their benefits in time. He also asked all concerned departments to ensure that as the new mechanisms are put in place, they do not result in causing inconvenience to any beneficiary. The Prime Minister asked the officials to test their systems carefully before implementing them on a large scale.

The Prime Minister was also informed of steps taken towards a unique identifier for NGOs. Over 71,000 NGOs are now registered with the NGO Darpan por-tal maintained by NITI Aayog.

PM Modi reviews progress of Aadhar and Direct Benefit Transfer programmes

Sanitation water supply & other projects to be sped up in VaranasiExecution of various projects to ensure sanitation and water supply in Varanasi will be speeded up with all the stakeholder agencies taking necessary actions in a time bound manner. This was agreed upon at a two-hour long review meeting taken by Rajiv Gauba, Secre-tary (Urban Development).

Construction of household and community and Pub-lic toilets, solid waste management, operationalisation of a waste processing plant at Karsada, management of waste dump at Ramna, cleaning of ghats, installa-tion of LED lights, land acquisition for a Water Treat-ment Plant, execution of HRIDAY works, implemen-tation under Kyoto-Varanasi Collaboration Agreement, JICA assisted works etc were discussed and reviewed in detail.

Regarding construction of toilets, Municipal Com-missioner of Varanasi has informed that as against the need for construction of 3,500 household toilets in the city, work has just begun on 779 toilets with the State Government agreeing to share of assistance to the ben-eficiaries and 46 community and public toilet seats have so far been constructed as against the need for 205. The officials assured that construction of remaining toilets will be commenced soon.

S P Singh, Principal Secretary (UD) of Uttar Pradesh has assured that Varanasi Municipal Commissioner will intensify efforts to mobilise funds under Corpo-rate Social Responsibility for the construction of pub-lic toilets in the city.

Rajiv Gauba impressed upon the State Government officials for speedy and concerted efforts to make Vara-nasi ‘Open Defecation Free’ at the earliest.

Regarding Solid Waste Management, the state gov-ernment officials said that IL&FS, which has been entrusted with door-to-door collection and transpor-tation of municipal solid waste in 14 core areas would be asked to consider doing the same for the remaining 74 wards in the city. Financing of solid waste collection and transportation in these 74 wards will be considered under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban).

It was also decided that IL&FS would be asked to examine issues relating to the management of huge waste dump at Ramna including the presence of combustible waste before capping off this dump is

considered to avoid possible fires. It was felt neces-sary to ensure the presence of only inert material in the dump. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has agreed to operationalise waste processing plant at Karsada in a month’s time.

Regarding setting up of a Water Treatment Plant at Baraipur for bringing more Ganga water to the city and a pending court case, it was stated that the Court has been informed that land proposed to be acquired is not on patta land and necessary further action in this regard would be taken.

Varanasi Municipal Corporation will soon come out with an Action Plan for ensuring 24 X 7 cleaning of ghats.

Rajiv Gauba, Secretary (UD) suggested that a reve-nue sharing model be evolved by the company EESL to meet the infrastructure cost of Rs 38 crore for install-ing LED lights along all streets and ghats in Varanasi.

A Committee will be set up under Divisional Com-

missioner of Varanasi to enable speedy execution of 24 road projects under Heritage Development and Aug-mentation Yojana (HRIDAY) to be implemented by the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC).

Regarding operationalisation of Kyoto-Varanasi Col-laboration Agreement, it was agreed that JICA will soon complete survey works for Rs 760 crore sewerage net-work projects in Cis-Varuna areas of the city and Rs 100

crore Sewerage and STP project in Ramnagar so that they could be launched before India-Japan Cooperation Review due next year.

JICA also agreed to quickly take a final view on financing the proposed Rs 74 crore Convention Centre project.

State Government officials have further informed that necessary approval has been accorded for JICA’s technical cooperation in the areas of solid waste man-agement, sewerage and liquid waste management and water supply (Non-revenue water) projects in Varanasi.

Rajiv Gauba also reviewed progress in respect of Kanpur Metro Project. The State Government was asked to quickly respond to the issues raised by the Ministry of Urban Development regarding a Compre-hensive Mobility Plan for the city and some complaints received regarding the alignment of the project.

Varanasi Mayor Ram Gopal Mohiley, Pravin Prakash and B Anand, Joint Secretaries in the Ministry of Urban Development , S P Singh, Principal Secretary(Urban Development, Govt of UP), Divisional Commissioner of Varanasi, Vice-Chairman of Varanasi Develop-ment Authority, Municipal Commissioner of Varanasi and other concerned senior officials of UP Govern-ment besides members of the Steering Committee on Kyoto-Varanasi Collaboration Agreement, representa-tives of JICA and Benares Hindu University attended the meeting.

15 URBAN NEWS DIGEST | MAY 2016 special feature | working cities

Railway Ministry signs agreement for speeding up highway projectsMinistry of Road Transport and Highways has signed Memorandum of Understanding with Min-istry of Railways so as to speed up the ROBs/RUBs projects on National Highways.

Ministry of Railways has developed a web-based programme for online submission for getting the expeditious approval of various drawings related to ROBs/RUBs within 60 days. It would help time bound approval of General Arrangement Draw-ings (GAD) by Ministry of Railways, resulting in the timely completion of ROBs/RUBs projects.

According to a report, the Modi government’s vision of creating 100 smart cities will require an investment of over $150 billion over the next few years with the private sector being a significant contributor.

Deloitte says nearly $120 billion will come from the private sector.

The government has already initiated two pro-grammes with an initial outlay of $7.513 billion for Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation of Urban Transformation (AMRUT) for the upgradation of 500 existing cities.

Deloitte India Senior Director PN Sudarshan said, “Even as funding for these smart cities is an area of con-cern, the major challenges remain with respect to the development of smart cities project management, gov-ernment decision-making and policy and regulatory framework.”

While several cities have made incremental invest-ments in smart solutions, the challenge will be to repli-cate these on a larger scale, he added.

According to the study, in 2016, service providers and over-the-top content providers will invest heavily

in city-wide Wi-Fi networks which will be the backbone for smart city services.

“As smart solutions are heavily dependent on ICT, service providers will play a significant role in smart cities…In 2016, service providers will participate in (and lead in many cases) consortiums for responding to RFPs for smart/digital solutions for various city and state gov-ernments,” stated Sudarshan.

Reliance Jio is likely to roll out Wi-Fi services across over 50 cities in 2016. Similarly, Bharti and Vodafone are deploying Wi-Fi through a joint venture company, Firefly.

Facebook is working with BSNL to deploy Wi-Fi in 100 areas in rural India while Google has announced a partnership with the railways to provide hotspots in 400 railway stations by 2016.

“Over the next 10-15 years, these cities will emerge as a key technology, economic, and social hubs for the country. We believe that service providers that expect to be serious players in smart cities will take a centre-forward position in leading consortiums in the devel-opment of smart cities,” he added.

Over $150 bn investment required for smart city initiative: Report

Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir visits China to attract investments

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal led a high-level delegation to Shanghai in China to showcase the state as an attractive investment destination.

During his four-day visit, Badal, accompanied by a delegation of top state officers, visited an interna-tional cycle show and attended a meeting with China Bicycle Association.

The Deputy Chief Minister had parleys with top Chinese business leaders from sectors like agricul-ture, manufacturing, textiles and infrastructure development and impressed upon them to invest in the state.

Badal also held a meeting with Vice Chairman, Shanghai Municipal Agricultural Commission, Feng Ziyong and visited Suzhou Industrial Park. He also participated in an investment summit.

Other members of the delegation included Pankaj Munjal, Chairman, Hero Cycles and Bhavdeep Sar-dana, Director, Sukhjit Starch and Chemicals.

Israel & MP govt to collaborate in agriculture & water management

Israel’s Consul General David Akov recently met Mad-hya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to explore possibilities of working in agriculture, water management and smart cities projects, an official release said.

According to an official release, Chouhan said that Israel and Madhya Pradesh can collaborate in water recycling and water management sectors with Israel.

The Chief Minister invited Akov to Global Investors Summit to be held at Indore in October.

He said that seven major cities in the state are being made smart. Besides, small cities are also being devel-oped as Mini Smart Cities.

“Israel can collaborate in the process. Israel and India are natural friends. Israel has done commendable work in agriculture, water management, and defence production sectors. Madhya Pradesh is a pioneer in agriculture growth rate in the country,” it said.

The Consul General said that his country is collabo-rating with various states of the country in water man-agement, agriculture, and rooftop solar energy sectors.

“Israel wishes to work in these sectors in Madhya Pradesh too,” said the Consul General.

Principal Secretary to Chief Minister S K Mishra and Commissioner Industries V L Kanta Rao among others were present at the meeting.

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