The sleepy touristic town and the virtual capital of the exile Tibetans, Dharamshala, has been officially chosen by the central government to be the first ‘smart city’ in the state of Himachal Pradesh beating the favorite Shimla in the overall assessment.
Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday made public the list of 98 cities across India designated for the Smart City project.
Each of the cities nominated were subjected to norms and trials as told by Dharamshala Congress MLA and Urban development minister Sudhir Sharma to reporters. “Selection was based on competition to ascertain the capacity and willingness of cities to become smart. The scoring criteria include existing service levels, institutional systems and capacities of ULBs, self-financing of ULBs, past track records and efficiency of implementation of JNNURM schemes and programmes”.
"We will use the funds sanctioned under Smart City Mission for Dharamshala appropriately and within timeframe," Sharma told IANS.
Speaking to Phayul, Tibetan Settlement officer of Dharamshala Sonam Dorjee welcomed the decision and expressed hope that the funds allocated will bring about positive changes to Dharamshala, especially McLeod Ganj area. “Since there is almost 500 Crores allocated for Dharamshala, a good part of that fund is likely to be spent on McLeod as it is the focal point of the tourist attractions and also the residence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama”.
Sonam said Tibetans will surely benefit from the initiative as projects like water supply development and waste management is bound to cover the entire area.
Dharamshala beat Shimla by 2.5 % in the eventual assessment with the downfall for Shimla’s loss largely attributed to its poor implementation of the 147 Crore sanction by the centre for allocations made on development of water distribution system, sewage networking and e-governance projects. These projects have not moved on beyond the blue prints. “The Government of India had to cancel these projects," he added.
The Dharamshala Municipal commission’s concept note for Dharamshala has included innovative plans on disaster management, deployment of broadband networks and web based e-services besides the rudimentary plans for water supply, urban transport and tourism among others.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Tenzin Dharpo
Quelle/Source: Phayul, 29.08.2015
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