Make Smart City Mission self-sustaining: CS

Srinagar, Nov 6: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, today chaired a meeting of Housing & Urban Development Department (H&UDD) to discuss several matters including the functioning of Srinagar Smart City Limited(SSCL) and Jammu Smart City Limited (JSCL).

The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, Finance; Commissioner Secretary, H&UDD; Divisional Commissioners of Kashmir/Jammu; CEOs of SSCL/JSCL and the officers from concerned Departments.

During this meeting the Chief Secretary explicitly specified that both the Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) established for execution of works of Smart City Mission in the twin cities of Srinagar and Jammu should be made self sustainable to continue their smooth functioning.

Dulloo maintained that both these SPVs in the shape of SSCL and JSCL had implemented works worth crores of rupees during the past few years. He pointed out that they had also created many revenue generating assets in both the cities during this course while implementing this mission in J&K.

The Chief Secretary impressed upon the authorities in these SPVs to come up with a workable model that would guarantee their functioning in a self sustainable manner for times to come.

He enjoined upon them to see the potential of existing assets with those in pipeline in terms of revenue generation and calculate the recurring expenditure to be made year after year to have an exact picture of the sustainability for years ahead.

He encouraged them to study models adopted in other states/UTs for this purpose. He also told them to idealise some viable projects to be taken up under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode which would assist in generating enough revenue for meeting all their operational costs efficiently.

Earlier, the Chief Secretary also took appraisal of the progress made in developing a model for securing 100 more e-buses under PM e-Bus Sewa to be fetched by central assistance.

It was given out by Commissioner Secretary, H&UDD, Mandeep Kaur, that the central government is going to extend its assistance for assured kilometers at the rate of Rs 24/Km for 12 M buses, Rs 22/Km for 9 M and Rs 20/Km for 7 M buses.

She further added that besides providing 100% assistance for ‘behind the meter power’ infrastructure, 90% of the costs for raising depot infrastructure upto the extent of Rs 20 Cr would also be borne by centre itself.

The meeting also discussed the possible models of reorganisation of Town Planning Organization for better planning and development of the urban areas of J&K.

It was given out that the Department contemplates to bring all the 78 Municipal bodies under the ambit of Town Planning in the times to come for designing them in a way to ensure a good standard of living for its residents.