Gangtok Smart City Development Limited (GSCDL) convened a stakeholders’ meeting at the mini conference hall of Chintan Bhawan in Sikkim capital on Tuesday.
The meeting was chaired by secretary, Urban Development department, Sarala Rai, who is also the state mission director of Smart City Mission.
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The meeting also had the presence of director general of police A S Rao, chief executive officer, GSCDL, Tarzan Subba, SP/East, SP/Traffic, HoDs and representatives of various line departments including Power, DESME, PHE, Health, Roads & Bridges, Education, Information Technology, NIC, GMC and other stakeholders.
While delivering his keynote address, the CEO, GSCDL, gave a brief history of the Smart City Mission which was launched on June 25, 2015 by the Ministry of Urban Development (Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, MoH&UA), Government of India (GoI) as a pan-city initiative with its core component being area-based developments.
He further informed that the Gangtok Smart City Proposal (SCP) was selected under Smart City Mission (SCM), GoI during the 3rd stage of competition and that the Gangtok Municipal Corporation (GMC) has incorporated a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) – “Gangtok Smart City Development Limited” (GSCDL) – to implement the SCP.
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The GSCDL, as the SPV, will plan, appraise, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate the Smart City development projects covering the 17 Gangtok Municipal wards.
The funding for Gangtok Smart City will be 50:50 sharing basis between Government of India and State/ULB, he added.
Stressing on the objective of the mission to be provision of core infrastructure, sustainable environment and application of smart solutions in cities, Subba stated that the mission envisages projects embodying principles of participation, innovation, sustainability and technology to enhance the ease of living of the citizens.
The CEO further highlighted that the total area of area-based development under Gangtok Smart City proposal is 366 acres with a population of about 30,000 and includes Lower MG Marg, Upper MG Marg, Deorali, Tibet Road, Arithang and Diesel Power House.
Likewise, the Pan City proposal is an integrated ICT based solution for management, monitoring & control and e-governance system for municipal service delivery.
Concluding his remark, the CEO highlighted on the importance of planning and called for cooperation and active participation of all the stakeholders for effective deliberation of Gangtok Smart City Project.
Thereafter, additional chief engineer, GSCDL, Rabi Narayan Sharma, gave a presentation on various ongoing projects under Gangtok Smart City.
These include improvement of existing and construction of new footpaths, construction of multi-level car park plazas at various locations and construction of new roads to ease traffic congestion in town.
He also touched upon other projects concerning rain water harvesting, development of infrastructure in wards, Palace rejuvenation and redevelopment, road and junction improvement, and construction of Convention Centre along with MLCP.
The GSCDL presentation was followed by another presentation delivered by a representative of Bharat Electronics Ltd on Integrated Command Control Centre (ICCC) project for Gangtok Smart City.
He stated that BEL is the Master System Integrator (MIS) for Smart City Gangtok and is implementing ICCC Smart City Solution in Gangtok along with System Integrator (SI), Sheeltron Digital System (P) Ltd.
He informed that BEL in consultation with respective stakeholders had conducted surveys of various track (smart) elements in order to identify feasible locations for betterment of citizens of Gangtok.
These track elements include installation of CCTVs, Variable Message Displays (VMDs), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), smart poles and lights and a smart parking facility.
One of the key highlights of the proposed projects under ICCC was Smart Parking system on street parking wherein one could receive feeds on the status of parking across the town which in turn will be managed by Smart Parking command centre. Through this system, one could also avail information of available, non-available parking spots and functional, non-functional parking slots.
The BEL representative added that this facility could also help ease the ongoing major issue of traffic congestion in Gangtok.
The Urban Development secretary, while addressing the meeting, stated that the Smart City Mission is a complex and multifaceted concept that catalysis smart solutions and enables a city to identify its potential and challenges for a better quality of life.
With proper implementation of planning and consultation with stakeholders, the challenges placed ahead can be effectively resolved in order to achieve a Smart Gangtok, she added.