Guwahati: An estimated budget of Rs 215 crore was required for developing Borsola Beel, Rs 444 crore for Bharalu river, Rs 488 crore for Mora Bharalu River and Rs 250 crore for Deepor Beel- this is not a hypothetical calculation.
The Guwahati Smart City Limited (GSCL) were set aside for these initiatives in the project report. The money was used to not only rehabilitate but also to beautify Guwahati’s reservoirs.
Guwahati was the first city to start working on a smart city project in 2016. Guwahati was one of the country’s first 20 cities to be chosen by the national government. This smart city project has taken on a number of unique projects. Guwahati Smart City Limited was established in order to bring the smart city initiative to fruition. Guwahati’s budget was allocated to make it a smart city.
However, Rs 296 crore of the remaining Rs 1,696 was supposed to be spent towards Guwahati’s regional development. The projects listed earlier were a unique part of this strategy.
The Smart City project started in Guwahati early in 2016 after the sprawling city located in Assam was selected as one of the first 20 such projects in India (ranked 17th), winning a contest between all the major cities in the country. It was created as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for the smooth implementation of the Smart City Project. However, for various reasons, little has been done till date, and as time goes by, the project has started to look like a distant dream.
However, you will be amazed to learn about the effort that has been done to make Guwahati a smart city on a priority basis.
The four completed schemes of the project are –
(ii) Installation of the National Flag atop Gandhi Mandap in the city costing Rs 2.93 crore. This work, however, is not free from the nagging problem of the National Flag not remaining in shape from time to time, especially when the city is lashed by heavy storms.
(ii) Setting up of a park atop Sarania Hill at Gandhi Mandap costing Rs 2.93 crore.
(iii) The setting up of 20 water ATM units in the city costing Rs 2.09 crore (though the scheme is completed many such units have gone out of order);
(iv) A total of 21 of the 30 bio-toilets have been constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 9.53 crore.
Apart from this, the incomplete schemes of the project are as follows:
- Phase-1 of the Project Jyoti Scheme with an estimated cost of Rs 13.21 crore is underway;
- Evaluation of tenders of the Rs 76.59-crore LED Streetlight Scheme is going on;
- DPR (Detailed Project Report) of the Rs 460-crore Brahmaputra River Bank Beautification Scheme is being prepared;
- Tenders have been invited for the Rs 215-crore Master System Integrator;
- Tender has been invited for the Rs 17.40-crore Command and Control Centre;
- Tender is being prepared for the Rs 10.95-crore Aswaklanta Devalaya Development Project; and
- Tender is under preparation for the Rs 17.42-crore Umananda Temple Development Project.
Meanwhile, in November 2021, Guwahati Smart City Limited Director Ghanshyam Dass announced that 17 projects would be commissioned soon in the city at a cost of 887 crore.
Dass stated that the river front development project will cost over Rs 308 crore, the procurement of 200 non-AC electric will cost Rs 236 crore, the integrated traffic management system will cost Rs 127 crore and buying the desilting super sucker machines will cost Rs 30 crore.
These plans make one thing abundantly obvious. It appears that the administration has not placed the same emphasis on solving the city’s complicated challenges as it has issues such as beauty enhancement, park installation. Although super wheelers have been purchased, the view of cleaning city drains with buckets and cores remains the same.
Artificial floods have become more important for Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma than the problem of drinking water. However, there have been cases of overbridge building without a DPR in place. That is, facing the Chief Minister in the city has become a legal requirement. If the chief minister so desires, he will construct an overbridge; if you so choose, you may establish a park. The chief minister’s visage, on the other hand, does not hear anything about the drainage plan. Instead, the chief minister has made parks and the overbridge his top focus. However, every resident believes that such haphazard construction will exacerbate the city’s already complex and worrisome condition.
GSCL has till now received Rs 380 crore from both the Centre and the state in the first phase to carry out smart city project works but the SPV is incapable of utilising the money.
In the first phase, the Central government issued Rs 191 crore and the state government issued Rs 189 crore but till now only Rs 15.9 crore has been utilised in only five projects.
In order to transform Guwahati into a smart city, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) – Guwahati Smart City Limited has been incorporated to plan, design, implement, coordinate and monitor the smart city project, which has remained ineffective.
The GSCL is a company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 2013 with equal shareholding from the Government of Assam. The total proposed cost for the Guwahati Smart City project is around Rs 2,296 crore. Out of the total proposed cost, Rs 1,579 crore has been allocated for Area Based Development (ABD) and Rs 622 crore for pan city development.
It needs to be mentioned here that GSCL had failed to implement several important projects in the city where the Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation Limited (BSCDCL) has supported the establishment of the market by funding the state’s first climate-based shared domestic data chain and infrastructure.
Moreover, for Guwahatians, wise and well-planned financial planning has become a must. Guwahati may soon have to be labelled an uninhabitable city if not.