Smart City budget for Ghaziabad hiked to Rs 2,901 crore

GHAZIABAD: The divisional commissioner of Meerut, Alok Sinha, on Thursday cleared the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation’s (GMC) Smart City proposal following a presentation by the civic body. The budget in the new proposal, which will be sent to the Union urban development ministry on March 31, has been pegged at Rs 2,901 crore.

TOI reported on March 17 that GMC had earlier estimated an expenditure of Rs 2,200 crore for various civic and infrastructure works.

The proposal has already been technically vetted by the Lucknow-based Regional Centre for Urban & Environmental Studies (RCUES), officials informed. “A high-powered committee of the state government will now review the proposal. The proposal will be finalised after the committee’s nod. A number of other cities will also present their proposals to the committee,” GMC executive engineer Sanjay Chauhan told TOI.

Ghaziabad will compete with 59 other cities in the country in the third round of the Smart City mission. The proposal consists of two components — area-based development and pan-city solutions. According to the proposal, a sum of Rs 2,122 crore will be spent on area-based development and about 1,495 acres of land in the trans-Hindon area of the city will be retrofitted and redeveloped. This area includes portions of Vaishali, Vasundhara and Kaushambi. An estimated budget worth Rs 779 crore will be used for pan-city solutions, aimed at making infrastructure and services better, which will involve the application of various smart solutions with the use of technology. Meanwhile, out of the total budget, the central government and the UP government will release Rs 500 crore each. Infrastructure works under way in the city with funds from the AMRUT scheme of the central government will further be adjusted into the budget.

The remaining amount will be raised through private partnerships while the GMC is also expected to make a certain quantum of the budget available.

Source - ET Realty