Last Updated on July 25, 2021 at 6:28 pm
It seems that Jammu and Srinagar have been lagging behind in terms of progress and development. In an India Smart Cities Awards Contest conducted by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs whose results were announced recently, two cities of J&K failed to bag any position.
Where various other cities have showed good performance in one sector or the other, but Jammu and Srinagar lagged behind in several parameters.
These awards were given across three broad categories which are Projects, Innovation and Cities.
Under Projects category there comes various sub categories like Governance, Culture, Urban Environment, Sanitation, Economy, Built Environment, Water, Mobility and many more.
But, Jammu and Srinagar Smart Cities have failed to achieve any of the 10 sub-categories of Project Award.
Under Innovation Category, there were two sub-categories namely Covid-19 innovation and innovation in Projects.
In this category also, both Srinagar and Jammu have failed to bag any position while as Sagar and Erode cities, which were selected in the 4th and 5th round of selection have bagged awards.
Under Cities Category, best performing cities from each round of selection were awarded apart from the overall best city award, which was given to the best performing city across all the 100 cities. In this category also, no position or award was bagged by the both cities.
According to Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, only Srinagar has developed and operationalized Integrated Command and Control Centre while as in respect of Jammu the same is yet to be established.
The participating cities were analyzed through 28 diverse indicators across five thematic areas like Energy and Green Buildings; Urban Planning, Green Cover and Biodiversity; Mobility and Air Quality; Water Management and Waste Management.
As per the results, overall rating given to Jammu is ‘1 Star’ while as Srinagar has bagged ‘2 Star’ rating. It is utmost important for both the cities to work on the parameters which have been set by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under Smart Cities Mission so that better results can be expected in future.
