Vasundhara, Vaishali & Kaushambi In Focus As Ghaziabad Tweaks Its Smart City Proposal

Updated on February 20, 2017:

Upbeat about the Smart Cities project, the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation has identified nearly 1,317 acres of land to be developed in its proposal for the mission. These portions of land have been identified in Vasundhara, Vaishali and Kaushambi and have been earmarked under the Area-Based Development component of the proposal. There is another component in the proposal, Pan-City Solutions, which will be focused on developing urban transportation and traffic management systems.

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Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad could not make to the Central government's previous lists to be developed as a Smart City. While it found no place in the first round that listed 20 cities in January 2016, Ghaziabad, a part of the national capital region, was ranked 53rd amongst 63 cities to compete in the last round held in September last year. While submitting their proposal this time, authorities will leave no stone unturned to ensure they are able to make the cut — the deadline for submitting the smart city proposal to the Centre is March 31.

However, the model code of conduct that has been put in place owing to the upcoming elections has led to the Ghaziabad Municipal Cooperation (GMC) tweaking its smart city proposal.  It is worth mentioning here that Assembly elections will be held in Uttar Pradesh in seven phases between February 11 and March 8.

"Since the election process is on and the model code of conduct is in place, holding public meetings and getting online suggestions will not be possible. Also, the activity is time-consuming. In a meeting held in Lucknow (state capital), it was decided that the area development as per the previous plan should be fine-tuned and submitted in the latest proposal," GMC Executive Engineer Sanjay Chauhan was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying.

Under the new plan, the municipal body will propose an area-based development for the trans-Hindon region while scrapping its previous proposal of revamping the old city. The earlier plan proposed the development of areas around Kaushambi and Vaishali Metro stations; the new plan will talk about developing areas near Vaishali and Vasundhara.

Cities of Uttar Pradesh that have already been selected under the Smart City Mission include Agra, Kanpur and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi. Only time will tell whether Ghaziabad would join the league of smart cities.