A team from the Centre is in Lucknow to review the work done in the 10 cities of Uttar Pradesh that were selected to be developed under the Smart City Mission, said officials of the urban development department.
A meeting of the officials working on various Smart City projects in the state has been called at the directorate of the urban development department and the state government has directed the municipal commissioners and the divisional commissioners of the chosen ten ‘smart cities’ -- Lucknow, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Agra, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Jhansi, Saharanpur and Bareilly -- to attend the meeting.
Sources in the urban development department said there was worry regarding the slow progress of the work in UP cities, which is why the secretary of the urban development department, Durga Shankar Mishra, and his team would be reviewing the projects.
Officials said that the work was moving at a snail’s pace primarily due to poor coordination between divisional and municipal commissioners. “In Lucknow too, Smart City work is lagging far behind schedule. The work under the project is still to begin in most areas of the city,” said an official who did not wish to be named.
Officials said that after the meeting on Saturday, the Central team was expected to “take some harsh decisions”. “It will also issue strict guidelines to compete all the works within stipulated time. Most projects in UP are still in the DPR (detailed project report) stage,” said the official.
{{/usCountry}}Officials said that after the meeting on Saturday, the Central team was expected to “take some harsh decisions”. “It will also issue strict guidelines to compete all the works within stipulated time. Most projects in UP are still in the DPR (detailed project report) stage,” said the official.
{{/usCountry}}When approached for his comments in the matter, SFA Zaidi, in charge, Smart City projects at the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC), said , “The LMC has prepared a presentation regarding the progress of Smart City jobs in the state capital. We will present our work to the Central team on Saturday.”
To recall, the Centre had selected 100 cities across the country to be developed as smart cities, 10 of which are in Uttar Pradesh. Apart from these 10, the state government is also developing Meerut, Shahjahanpur, Firozabad, Vrindavan–Mathura, Ayodhya and Gorakhpur as smart cities, using its own resources.