Bengaluru, Oct 06: The cities of Belagavi and Davangere have received Rs 388 crore each, 10 months after being selected for the Smart City initiative, to execute their planned projects.
The Centre and state governments have chipped in with Rs 194 crore each (two annual instalments for the five-year Smart City Mission).
Belagavi Smart City Limited and Davangere Smart City Limited, two special purpose vehicles (SPVs), for programme implementation have been registered with the Registrar of Companies. The SPVs are companies with a board of directors from the state government, Union ministry of urban?development and independent directors. The SPVs have been put in place to ensure autonomy in decision-making and mission implementation of smart cities.
Official sources in Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC), the nodal agency for the Smart City initiative, said the process of public consultation for deciding on the vision statement and objective of the smart city programme has been completed. While Belagavi invited suggestions on ideas, vision, mission and goals from citizens for its Smart City programme, Davangere went further and held an essay competition on Davangere as a smart city'. There were 10 prizes at stake. The public were invited to write about the top priority area for making Davangere a smart city and the reason they had chosen the area. As many as 500 entries were received and the top essay was awarded a cash prize of Rs 25,000.
At present, both in Belagavi and Davangere, the process of shortlisting the project management consultant is on.
“Once we finalise the consultant, we will start project execution. The consultant will guide us right from project selection, finalising the detailed project report, to programme monitoring and implementation,” Belagavi City Corporation commissioner Shashidhar Kurer said.
Belagavi has plans to boost its basic infrastructure by improving roads, utilities and amenities like water supply and transportation facilities. It is also keen on development of neighbourhood parks and improvement of employment opportunities through development of factories and skill development centres at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore over the next five years. Kurer said Belagavi Smart City initiatives will tag along with several ongoing projects under the convergence option to expand its base and speedy completion. Some of the convergence-based projects include tagging along with Amrut scheme for improving water supply and sanitation facility (Rs 156 crore), 24x7 water supply in association with KUIDFC?(Rs 420 crore; World Bank-aided project) and undergrounding of high-voltage power lines in association with Hescom (Rs 330 crore).
In Davangere, besides taking up improvement in basic infrastructure, there are plans for taking up development of Mandakki Bhatti, a major hub of puffed rice manufacture units. The plan is to provide environmental-friendly modern machines and develop civic infrastructure in the locality under public private partnership model. Other projects planned include redevelopment of Mandipet wholesale market and improvement of the 200-year-old Durgamba temple, located in the heart of the city. The Durgamba temple can be taken up for revitalisation under the heritage and cultural precinct head of the Smart City initiative.
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