Last Updated on April 15, 2022 at 6:30 pm
Building cities that ‘work’ inclusive, healthy, resilient and sustainable requires intensive policy coordination and investment choices. National and local governments have an important role to play towards shaping the future of their development, to create opportunities for all.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration, keeping pace with national policies and programmes envisaging urban development, is initiating numerous measures towards accelerating growth and development of cities of the UT. The Smart City Projects are aimed at transforming Jammu and Srinagar into modern, sustainable and economically vibrant cities with a dedicated focus on improving infrastructure and services, increasing mobility.
The ambitious project, on completion, would strengthen urban infrastructure, improve city services, public aesthetics, ease of living, provide a clean and sustainable environment besides enhancing administrative machinery in both the capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar.
The Smart Cities Mission was launched by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on June 25, 2015, for development of 100 Smart Cities across the country. The Mission is an urban renewal and retrofitting program by the Government of India with the mission to develop smart cities across the country, making them citizen friendly and sustainable.
Under the Mission, an initiative aimed at driving economic growth and improving the quality of life of people, both the capital cities of Jammu and Kashmir were selected by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
According to the official figures, 276 magnificent projects of economic importance have been approved in twin cities to bring remarkable transformation and significantly improve the quality of life of people.
These projects include integrated Command and Control Centre, e-services, smart classrooms, smart toilets, smart meters, wifi zones, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCDA), Geographic information system (GIS) for mapping assets, Intelligent Traffic Management system (ITMS), Green spaces, vertical gardens and heritage conservation etc.
J&K Government, through its continuous endeavours, is exploring all the possibilities to develop Jammu and Srinagar cities into world-class modern, sustainable and vibrant cities.
“These new initiatives are in line with our mission of making cities sensitive to the needs of citizens and our vision of evolving them through the use of modern IT & other interventions, enabling seamless information access and better service delivery. We need to adopt meaningful ways and means to cater the ever-changing needs of citizens, to acknowledge the limits of available capacities, and strive dynamically to address the same”, Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha said.
Variable Message Displays (VMDs) would be put to use as a relevant and instant information dissemination tool to display information regarding government programs, schemes, awareness campaigns, information on traffic congestion conditions and alternate route diversions in case of high traffic; real time display of weather, temperature, air quality, etc.
VMDs would not only be a source of generating additional revenue for smart cities but the Variable Message Displays are strategically located on PAN city bases and have been integrated with ICCC platform, readable up to a distance of 150 metres. The control system is hosted on cloud to ensure 100% runtime besides surface Mounted Diode Technology for better visibility and IP67 Casing for all-weather operability.
The digital delivery of urban citizen services has been started to ease the process of availing the services of the government departments in twin cities. The services include a Building Permission System, issuance of Non Objection Certificate for commercial activities, birth and death certificates and corrections.
