Countdown to Smarty City short listing of 20 cities start, Faridabad optimizes its chances

Sanjay Chaturvedi

The race to reach in top 20 cities in the very first year of smart city mission of Government of India is nearing to its peak. The states have to submit their final proposal showing the path to become a smart city latest by 15^th December 2015 to the Government of India. The beauty of the process of selection of cities is that it is based on the participation of the public and not just implementation of a government made policy. Faridabad and Karnal, the two cities of Haryana are also making their best to ensure their seat in the first 20 cities. The nodal officer of the project in Faridabad D.R. Bhaskar, Superintending Engineer, Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF) said that after being shortlisted in the 98 Cities of the county, MCF mooted several steps for participation of citizens of Faridabad for their involvement in visualizing the future of a smart city Faridabad. In order to maximize the public participation, MCF took various initiatives and invited visions, goals and ideas from the residents of this area through 7,71,194 citizens’ consultation activities by means of Essay competition, Painting Competition, Video competition, Survey/Poll Forms, Mygov discussions, Live Talk Show, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp etc. and  as per the guidelines issued by Government of India from time to time under the Smart City Mission prepared a draft of the Smart City Plan (SCP) containing all the modules. The said draft SCP was placed before the “Task Force Committee” constituted by the Government of Haryana in a meeting held under the Chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner, Faridabad on 7-12-2015.

D.R. Bhaskar further said that after approval of the said SCP by the Task Force Committee at Faridabad, the same was placed before the ‘State Level High Powered Steering Committee for the “Smart Cities” in its 4^th meeting held on 9-12-2015 at Chandigarh under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary to Govt. Haryana.  Bhaskar said that the State Level High Powered Steering Committee has approved the Smart City Proposals of Faridabad & Karnal.  He further added that the said High Powered Committee has also formed Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for Faridabad & Karnal which will be limited companies under the Companies Act, 2013 being promoted by the Government of India/ State Government and ULB jointly having 50:50 shareholding. He said that the Deputy Commissioner of the respective districts would be the Chairperson of the SPV. CEO of the SPV will be a Full Time officer, holding Independent Charge. The CEO will be appointed for a fixed term of three years after approval of Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD), Government of India on the basis of recommendation of a Three-member committee under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary, Haryana and Principal Secretary ULB, & Mission Director ULB as members and could only be removed with the approval of MOUD. The Board of Directors will have representatives of Central Government, State Government, ULB and independent Directors to be selected as per item 3 of Annexure 5 of Smart City Guidelines.  Bhaskar further said that the SLHPSC also deliberated on the powers of the SPV and after due consideration approved in principle delegation of powers to the SPV as per item 4 of Annexure 5 of Smart City Guidelines.

Bhaskar further said that the SPV shall plan, appraise, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate the Smart City development projects in the MCF area. It was further said by the Superintending Engineer, Municipal Corporation that the total cost of Smart City Proposal is 1486.74 crore against which there will be a tied up grant of Rs. 1000 crore during the span of five years from Government of India/State Government and the gap funding shall be made available to the SPV from different Departments such as Public Health, Power, Tourism, HUDA etc. during the period of five years as per details given below:

Sh. Bhaskar further appeal to the residents of this area to share their views on Smart City Proposal by visiting Mygov link http://mygov.in/group-issue/draft-smart-city-proposal-faridabad or website link http://www.smartcityfaridabad.co.in/faridabd-smart-city-proposal. He informed that the last date for uploading the view by the citizens is December 11^th and the facility can be availed till 5 PM only on this date. He appealed to the residents of Faridabad for submitting their proposals by this time so that the smart city project is finally laid out on the vision of the common man of Faridabad.