Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha today called for executing the ambitious Smart City projects in Jammu and Kashmir expeditiously.The Lt Governor was chairing a high level meeting of Administrative Secretaries, experts on Smart City Projects and other stakeholders here at Civil Secretariat.Stressing on timely completion of the Smart City Projects, the Lt Governor passed specific directions to the concerned officers for completion of the projects within the set timelines without any delay.“The vision behind the ambitious projects is to transform Jammu & Srinagar into modern, sustainable and economically vibrant cities with dedicated focus on improving infrastructure & services, increasing mobility and enhancing the administrative efficiency”, observed the Lt Governor.The Lt Governor called for exploring every possibility to achieve the desired results and asked the concerned officers of Smart City projects in J&K to apply the learning gained from the experience of the officers of Smart City Ahmedabad Development Ltd during the implementation phase for various smart city initiatives.The Lt Governor stressed upon the necessity of proper inter-departmental coordination and also directed the officers to get a better exposure and understanding of different aspects of Smart City projects.He also enquired about the measures taken while completing projects by Smart City Ahmedabad Development Ltd and issued directions to the concerned officers for effective implementation of different projects and IT based smart civic services in Jammu & Kashmir.
He further emphasised upon the need of undergrounding of overhead utilities all along the proposed Complete Street development project.Sh. Keshav Varma, Chairman, Sabarmati River Front Development Corporation Ltd (SRFDCL); Sh. Mukesh Kumar, Commissioner, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation; Sh. Nitin Sangwan, CEO, Smart City Ahmedabad Development Ltd and Sh. Jagdish Patel, General Manager, Technical, SRFDCL gave their valuable inputs for sharing of knowledge and expertise in implementing various aspects of Smart City projects.Experts from Sabarmati River Front Development Corporation Ltd explained the details and gave suggestions for development of Tawi River Front on the lines of Sabarmati River Front, besides flood control measures to be taken. They also briefed the chair about the challenges and best practices adopted during the development of Sabarmati Riverfront at Ahmedabad, and drew parallels between the Tawi River Front project.CEO, Smart City Ahmedabad Development Ltd gave a detailed overview of projects undertaken by SCADL, while CEO, Jammu Smart City Ltd., Ms. Sushma Chauhan presented the status of similar projects executed & under execution in Jammu, including Integrated Command & Control Center; upcoming ICCC integrations; smart urban mobility & Intelligent Traffic Management System; City beautification; façade lighting & illumination; efficient green initiatives; solid waste management etc.Sh. Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lt Governor; Sh. BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Sh. Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Lt Governor; concerned Administrative Secretaries; Divisional Commissioners, Jammu and Kashmir; IGPs Jammu and Kashmir; Deputy Commissioners, Jammu and Srinagar; Commissioners, Jammu and Srinagar Municipal Corporations; VCs JDA and SDA; HoDs; Chief Engineers and other senior officers attended the meeting, in person and through virtual mode.