• Lucknow tops Fast Track competition; 13 more Smart Cities announced
• North East Cities Agartala and Imphal make it to the list of Smart Cities
Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 24
Nagaland State capital Kohima tryst for the ‘smart city’ tag suffered another disappointment on Tuesday as it failed again to figure in the list of 13 cities selected based on the marks scored by them in the Fast Track competition.
The list was announced at a conference on the occasion of two years of the Government in office, by Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Venkaiah Naidu.
A PIB report of the event informed that the selection of the 13 cities was based on the marks scored by them in the Fast Track competition and the benchmarks set by the top performers in the first round of Smart City Challenge competition in which the first 20 cities were selected from among 98 mission cities.
Lucknow topped the list of winners of the Fast Track competition conducted for 23 cities from as many States and Union Territories by improving the quality of its smart city plan by 19%. Other winners of Fast Track competition were - Warangal, Telanagana (13%), Shimla, Himachal Pradesh (27%), Chandigarh (9%), Raipur, Chattisgarh (25%), New Town Kolkata (11%), Bhagalpur, Bihar (25%), Panaji, Goa (9%), Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands (26%), Imphal, Manipur (27%), Ranchi, Jharkhand (27%), Agartala, Tripura (25%) and Faridabad, Haryana(12%). With the selection of these 13 cities, 25 States/UTs are now covered under Smart City Mission.
Naidu stated that the 13 cities substantially improved their smart city plans by addressing the deficiencies identified in the first round of competition by ensuring better profiling of respective cities in terms of infrastructure gaps and baseline service levels; ensuring consistency between citizens’ aspirations and action plans etc.
Other cities that participated in Fast Track Competition were: Namchi, Sikkim (ranked 14) Aizawl, Mizoram(15), Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh(16), Dehradun, Uttarakhand(17), Kohima, Nagaland(18), Oulgaret, Puducherry(19), Silvassa, Dadra, Nagar & Haveli(20), Kavaratti, Lakshdweep(21), Diu, Daman & Diu(22) and Shillong, Meghalaya(23). Another 40 would be selected during 2016-17 and the remaining 40 during the next financial year.
Why again?
While Kohima was not included in the first 20 list, its hope was renewed when it was included amongst another 23 smart cities provided with an opportunity to upgrade their proposals on fast track basis in March. The Kohima Municipal Council (KMC) had roped in consultants from Voyants Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Gurgoan for the proposal.
However, Kohima failed to make the cut again.
The Nagaland Sate capital appears to be lacking in most parameter stipulated in the criteria. For instance, with an overall score of 893 out of 2000 points, Kohima was ranked a “slow mover” ranking 60 out of 73 cities in India surveyed for cleanliness during the ‘Swachh Survekshan-2016’ survey announced by the ministry on February 15.
The ranking of Kohima seems to have suffered most on parameters of service level status. The city scored low in all variables such as Public & Community Toilet Provision, Processing and Disposal of Waste Management.
Kohima also appear to be lagging behind in the City Level Evaluation (30%) and Proposal Level Evaluation (70%). The former evaluates credibility of implementation city vision and strategy and the latter evaluates the impact of proposal, cost effectiveness of smart city plan, innovation and scalability, processes followed. Consultation with citizens, especially the vulnerable section and usage of social media, community, mobile governance and accommodation of contrary “voices” forms the crux of the strategy and planning.
Interestingly, in the Kohima Smart City Poll - Fast Track Stage Poll on Government of India portal (https://mygov.in/group-poll/kohima-smart-city-poll-fast-track-stage/), citizens voiced out various issues like lack of parking space; road condition, traffic violations – for vehicles & pedestrian, traffic congestion & pollution, promotion of non-motorized transport, security and road re-design, and re-alignment, improving walkways and beautification as major areas needing changes.
The stakeholders in Nagaland State should incorporate these concerns and rejig its mission to make it to the list in the next round in June.
