Warangal raring to go for Smart City challenge 

Warangal raring to go for Smart City challenge 
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Highlights

Warangal that missed the Smart City bus by a whisker is ready and raring to go to make use of the opportunity given by the Centre. When it announced the first batch of cities selected for the Smart City challenge on January 28, the Centre gave another opportunity to 23 cities, including Warangal, to participate in the fast track competition.

STATE CLEARS REVISED PROPOSAL

Warangal: Warangal that missed the Smart City bus by a whisker is ready and raring to go to make use of the opportunity given by the Centre. When it announced the first batch of cities selected for the Smart City challenge on January 28, the Centre gave another opportunity to 23 cities, including Warangal, to participate in the fast track competition.

It may be mentioned here that the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) hired the services of the LEA Associates South Asia Pvt. Ltd. India, a renowned consultancy in the industry, to prepare the Smart City proposal. But it was just 0.07 points that derailed the hopes of Warangal from making it to the first list.

Working on the opportunity given by the Centre to be back in the race, the Warangal administration and the consultancy reworked on the shortcomings pointed out by the Central committee to come up with a revised proposal. The scoring (total 100 points) of Smart City Proposal (SCP) is based on three sections City Profile (30 points), Area Based Development (55 points) and Pan-City Solution (15 points).

The proposal focused on transforming Warangal into a vibrant regional economic hub in Telangana and to make it a clean, green, inclusive, modern, safe and citizen-friendly and well governed city. The proposal tried to drive home the point that Warangal being the cultural capital of Telangana has the potential to continue as the centre of heritage and cultural tourism.

In the Area Based Development segment, the proposal focused on the development of the Bhadrakali Lake Front, Extended Business, Smart Mobility, Green Urbanism and Safety and Security. The total cost of the Smart City proposal is Rs 2,681, of which Rs 1,686 crore is to be funded by the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and Rs 995 crore would be funded through Public, Private Partnership (PPP) project.

SPV-funded projects: 1. HRIDAY Components at a cost Rs 45 crore; 2. Solid waste management, Storm water drain, Water supply and sewerage projects costing Rs 229 crore; 3. Power and Renewable energy projects costing Rs 232 crore; 4. Retrofitting of roads in Retrofitting area costing Rs 572 crore; 5. Affordable housing for poor costing Rs 100 crore; 6. Development of Infrastructure facilities at Land pool area costing Rs 124 crore; 7. IT-enabled smart infrastructure smart costing Rs 48 crore; 8. Other Projects (Rain water harvesting, Solar Panels, Development of Open spaces etc.) costing Rs 98 crore; 9. Pan-city components: (Intelligent Transportation System along Warangal Life Line Corridor, + Smart Solution for E-Governance, costing Rs 238 crore.

The detailed costing of projects under PPP: 1. Redevelopment of TSRTC Bus Stand and Depot costing Rs 620 crore; 2. Parking and commercial development projects costing Rs 375 crore. The proposal indicates that Warangal, which has a credit rating of ‘CARE A’, has adequate scope for raising additional loans besides the Smart City grant of Rs 500 crore from Government of India and another Rs 500 crore from Government of Telangana and GWMC.

Mayor Nannapuneni Narender told The Hans India: “The revised proposal has got the approval of the state-level High Powered Steering Committee (HPSC) headed by the Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma on Wednesday. We are pretty confident that Warangal will figure in the second list.” Warangal Municipal Commissioner Sarfaraz Ahmad said: “The CS, Special Chief Secretary M G Gopal, C&DMA Dana Kishore and I&PR Commissioner Naveen Mittal were satisfied with the proposal after they were given a power point presentation by the LEE Associates director Phani Raj.

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