The Smart city plan is a dream project announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The plan aims to develop 100 cities in the country as Smart Cities.
These cities will be developed to have basic infrastructure through assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation.
The first list of 20 cities were declared and the implementation will start soon.
In the coming years, the government will announce 40 cities each to be developed as smart cities as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to develop 100 smart cities in the country.
The government plans to build 20 smart cities by 2022 to help accommodate swelling urban population, which is set to rise by more than 400 million people to 814 million by 2050. For participation in this project , a competition was held.
The cities are competing on a variety of matrices, including urban reforms and their plan of action in four key areas — Swachh Bharat, Make in India, good governance (modern accounting system, rationalisation of property taxes) and e-governance.
A total of 15.20 million (1.52 crore) citizens had participated in the preparation of the ambitious Smart City plans at various stages.
Some sent their ideas to city officials via Twitter, Facebook or SMS. Others entered local contests for designing logos or writing essays. Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern state of Orissa, unfurled a 10-kilometer-long canvas banner across the city and invited residents to scroll down their suggestions.
Many of the proposals mentioned a need for better transportation, sewage treatment or trash management.
The Rajasthani heritage cities of Jaipur and Udaipur, and Agra, the city of the iconic Taj Mahal, all wanted to clean up their downtown tourist areas, while people in Amritsar, best known for its Golden Temple and location near Pakistan, suggested CCTV cameras and an emergency call center to address their main concerns about safety and security.
The Smart City plans will demonstrate how integrated planning and smart technologies can deliver better a quality of life.
The Centre and states will equally split the overall cost of the project estimated at Rs 96,000 crore. The central government will provide on an average Rs. 100 crore per chosen city per year. The project cost of each smart city will vary depending upon the level of ambition, model, capacity to execute and repay.
Raising funds is the key challenge as also is developing older cities with limited scope to overhaul. Heavily populated areas may need complete rebuilding which will then involve temporarily rehabilitating people and, in some cases, acquiring land.
The states selected 97 cities for Smart City Plan.
Caracas : Venezuela has recorded 4,700 suspected cases of people infected by the Zika virus, which is thought to cause brain damage in babies, the health ministry said.
The estimate followed thousands of other suspected cases in Latin America which have raised a world health scare over the mosquito-borne virus.
“We have reports of 4,700 patients suspected of being infected with the Zika virus” based on their symptoms, Health Minister Luisana Melo told reporters yesterday.
It was the first such toll from the government in the South American country of 30 million people, which is struggling with an economic and political crisis.
Melo said there were likely far more cases of Zika than the suspected cases so far recorded because most patients do not realise they have the virus since the symptoms are usually mild.
World health authorities suspect that the virus is to blame for a recent rise in the region in cases of microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with abnormally small heads.
The World Health Organisation said yesterday that Zika is “spreading explosively” in the Americas and the region may see up to four million cases.
Venezuela is among more than 20 countries and territories that have reported cases.
Melo said Venezuela had not yet identified any cases of microcephaly linked to Zika.
She said the government was launching a program to eliminate the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the insect that carries Zika and other tropical fevers.
Melo insisted the authorities were equipped to treat the disease, despite recent shortages of medical supplies due to the country’s severe economic crisis.
She added that Venezuela had also recorded 90 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological disorder that can cause paralysis or even death.
That disease has also been linked to Zika but Melo said there was so far no evidence to link the cases in Venezuela with that virus.
@Agency report.
Panaji : Newly formed Goa Forward party has opposed the release of a book on Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse scheduled for tomorrow on the death anniversary of the Father of the Nation.
The book, titled ‘Nathuram Godse – The Story of an Assassin’ and written by Anup Ashok Sardesai, is scheduled for release tomorrow at the government-owned Ravindra Bhavan in Margao by BJP leader and the bhavan’s chairman Damodar Naik.
“The use of government premises for such an unpatriotic cause should be stopped. We will hold ‘satyagraha’ in front of Ravindra Bhavan if the government allows the function to happen,” Goa Forward’s secretary Mohandas Lolienkar said.
@Agency news.
