7 years on, 13 Smart City projects in Chandigarh hanging fire

Even though Chandigarh was selected for the Smart Cities Mission in May 2016, seven years later, as many as 13 projects worth ₹1,500 crore still remain unfinished.

The issue came up for discussion during the Lok Sabha session on Thursday, where Kaushal Kishore, minister of state for housing and urban affairs, shared that out of total 98 works, Chandigarh had completed 85 worth ₹3,200 crore.

The minister directed the authorities concerned to complete the remaining works by June 2024.

The main pending works include upgrade of five sewage treatment plants (STPs), 24x7 water supply, the integrated command and control centre (ICCC) in Sector 17 and rejuvenation of Sector 17.

A Smart City is an urban region that is highly advanced in terms of overall infrastructure, sustainable real estate, communications and market viability. It is a city where information technology is the principal infrastructure and basis for providing essential services to residents.

Of the total 98 Smart City projects in Chandigarh, 60 are under the special purpose vehicle (SPV), while 38 are under the convergence of missions, which means they are covered under other schemes like Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Swachh Bharat Mission.

However, the main projects are covered under the SPV, named Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL), which was formed in July 2016 for designing and execution of projects funded by the Smart Cities Mission.

‘Works got delayed due to pandemic’

CSCL CEO Anindita Mitra said the works got delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the ICCC was almost ready and the 24x7 water supply in Manimajra will be rolled out by February next year.

“For the 24x7 water supply project, the municipal corporation (MC) will be finalising a long-term technical adviser by July-end. The residents of first phase (Sectors 1 to 30) are expected to get round-the-clock supply by December 2024. The entire city is expected be covered by 2028,” she said.

Conceived nearly seven years ago, the project has a financial outlay of ₹578 crore, of which ₹412 crore is being provided by French government’s Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) in the form of loan, to be repaid in 15 years. In addition, the European Union is giving a grant of ₹100 crore for the project, while CSCL will foot ₹68 crore out of the total cost.

Chandigarh MC and AFD had signed the final project agreement in December 2022.

The project aims to avoid wastage of water by minimising storage of water by the public through 24x7 continuous high-pressure supply. Other objectives include water resource augmentation through leakage reduction, smart metering, limited dependence on groundwater and monitoring of energy consumption.

Sensors in the supply system will measure water consumption, water levels and water flow rates on a real-time basis. The smart meters will provide consumers data to help them monitor their usage and reduce costs, and also allow remote monitoring and billing.

Another important ongoing project is to upgrade five STPs with the sequencing batch reactors technology. Work on two STPs – Dhanas and 3BRD – has been completed, while the upgrade of the Raipur Khurd and Raipur Kalan STPs will be completed by August this year, followed by the Diggian STP in September.

The total cost of the project is around ₹300 crore, and another ₹400 crore will be spent on the STPs’ maintenance for 15 years.