It won't be surprising if Surat emerges as India's first `Smart City', an integral element of one of the pet schemes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The reason -the implementation methodology for building 100 smart cities proposed by the Union urban development ministry last week has already been put in practice in Surat. The ministry has identified three key areas -retrofitting development of 500 acres (makeover of old city), redevelopment of existing urban sprawl and greenfield townships -as prerequisites for a Smart City.
Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) is already working on two of the three parameters. “As far retrofitting is concerned, we have started work on giving the railway station a complete facelift. The Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) fits in the redevelopment and greenfield township requirement,“ said municipal commissioner Milind Torwane.
SMC has also started water metering in specific areas of Varacha and Gopipu ra of old city, changing the water distribution network in Chowk Bazaar area and replacing the tube lights on Rajmarg with energy-efficient LED lights. “A major challenge is retrofitting the old city area of 500 acres. We are starting that with metering of all water connections in Varacha and will take up other old city areas one by one,“ said Jatin Shah, city engineer in SMC. “Moreover, the latest guidelines state that the model adopted for development is not a subsidy model but a public-private-partnership (PPP model. We are working on it from the beginning and not relying on government subsidy,“ he added.
This development will be completed in a span of three to five years with the help of initial funding of Rs.1,000 crore provided by the government. Major portion of the funds will be recoverable after five years' time.
The Surat Smart City project has already got a major fillip with software giant Microsoft giving help to create smart IT solutions for all public services, intelligent traffic management system and others.
Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) is already working on two of the three parameters. “As far retrofitting is concerned, we have started work on giving the railway station a complete facelift. The Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) fits in the redevelopment and greenfield township requirement,“ said municipal commissioner Milind Torwane.
SMC has also started water metering in specific areas of Varacha and Gopipu ra of old city, changing the water distribution network in Chowk Bazaar area and replacing the tube lights on Rajmarg with energy-efficient LED lights. “A major challenge is retrofitting the old city area of 500 acres. We are starting that with metering of all water connections in Varacha and will take up other old city areas one by one,“ said Jatin Shah, city engineer in SMC. “Moreover, the latest guidelines state that the model adopted for development is not a subsidy model but a public-private-partnership (PPP model. We are working on it from the beginning and not relying on government subsidy,“ he added.
This development will be completed in a span of three to five years with the help of initial funding of Rs.1,000 crore provided by the government. Major portion of the funds will be recoverable after five years' time.
The Surat Smart City project has already got a major fillip with software giant Microsoft giving help to create smart IT solutions for all public services, intelligent traffic management system and others.
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