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Ghaziabad municipal corporation gets selected under state smart city mission, officials to focus on better solid waste management
In a decision taken by the UP cabinet on Tuesday, the Ghaziabad municipal corporation has been included under the state smart city mission and will be able to get
In a decision taken by the UP cabinet on Tuesday, the Ghaziabad municipal corporation has been included under the state smart city mission and will be able to get a grant of an additional ₹250 crore within five years. The officials said that seven municipal corporations were selected by the cabinet under the state smart city mission.
The seven corporations selected under the state mission include Meerut, Ghaziabad, Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, Mathura-Vrindavan, Firozabad and Shahjahanpur.
“There are already 10 cities in the state under the Centre’s Smart City initiative; they are getting grants for works. The seven selected corporations which got selected under the state smart city mission will also get ₹50 crore every year for five years,” Srikant Sharma, UP’s power minister, said.
“The UP chief minister hopes that the seven corporations, with the help of funds, will be able to plan better management, improve traffic issues, better drinking water facilities, improve electricity infrastructure and solid waste management facilities, etc. The corporations selected under the guidelines of the state mission are apart from the cities which have been already selected by the Centre under the Smart City initiative,” he added.
In 2018, Ghaziabad city had participated in the Centre’s Smart City initiative but failed to make it to the final list. The cities from Uttar Pradesh that have been selected under the Smart City initiative so far include Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Varanasi, Bareilly, Aligarh, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Jhansi and Moradabad.
The Ghaziabad municipal corporation officials said that they will focus on better management of solid waste as it is a major issue for the Ghaziabad city. The city produces about 850 metric tonnes of daily solid waste but has no scientific solid waste disposal facility yet.
“We will be spending the funds received under the state smart city mission to improve our solid waste handling and its scientific disposal. It will be our prime focus area. We are already sharing funds and working with the Ghaziabad Development Authority for the Integrated Traffic Management System which will considerably improve traffic conditions by better enforcement and regulation,” Dinesh Chandra Singh, municipal commissioner, said.
The corporation recently procured additional land at Galand, where a scientific facility for the development of a waste to energy plant is coming up and will be able to process the solid waste of the entire city.
The UP solid waste monitoring committee has already banned the dumping of any solid waste at the dumping site in Pratap Vihar. The state government has already awarded the contract for the plant at Galand to a Netherlands-based company, which is expected to take over land from the corporation and initiate work.
