TN cities take the slow Route to Getting ‘smart’

Three years since it was launched with much fanfare bordering hype, the Smart City project that the Centre mooted is yet to bring about any visible change in Tamil Nadu, as most projects sanctioned under the mission are still only in the stage of tenders. 

Under the mission for which 100 cities from across the country were chosen, the Union Urban Development Ministry had promised rather simple but useful steps, including energy efficient street lighting, smart parking, streets without motorised traffic, innovative use of open spaces and robust IT connectivity with uninterrupted power supply. 

The multi-crore project also aims to prod the urban local bodies to focus on sanitation, solid waste management and ensure that 80 per cent of building in a redeveloped area should be ‘green’.

All the 12 municipal corporation in Tamil Nadu qualified for the mission, and obtained a total fund of Rs 900 crores in the three years since the launch of the mission. However, there are hardly any change visible on the ground in a good majority of these cities, say critics.

According to official sources, the project has gained momentum in Chennai, Coimbatore, Thanjavur and Vellore. However, in the case of Erode, Tirupur and Thoothukudi corporations, the projects taken up under Smart City Mission are still only on the drawing board. In Chennai and Coimbatore, it helped improve street lighting with new LED lights, but solid waste management and parking issues are being worked out even now.

“The Smart City Mission is yet to make any visible change in Coimbatore and Erode. Most of the projects sound impressive but they fail on the field,” said former minister and AIADMK MLA from Perundurai, Thoppu N Venkatachalam. 

Most projects that were taken up used the figures from Census of 2011, which has been an issue, he said. “For instance, an underground drainage project has been sanctioned for my constituency, Perundurai. But it can cover only 30,000 population based on the 2011 Census, though the actual population is 45,000. There must be more field-oriented projects involving public, and not a concept that exists only in paper,” Venkatachalam said.

Another person unimpressed by the mission is M Subramanian, a former mayor of Chennai and presently the DMK MLA representing Saidapet. “Smart City is just a well-framed phrase by the Centre, which has not changed the dimension of any city in Tamil Nadu,” he said. In Chennai, for instance, the city Corporation has been struggling for more than five decades to commission multi-level parking lots and zero waste management centre, he said. A smart city, Subramanian added, is just a new name for ongoing civic projects.

When asked about the alleged delays in the execution of Smart City projects, Local Administration Department secretary Harmander Singh denied any delay as far as the project schedule was concerned. 

A smart city is a comprehensive five-year project, and many cities in Tamil Nadu entered the mission only last year. In the case of Erode, the city was included in the mission only this year. All the cities would have five-year period to implement the scheme and there is time till 2022, the official pointed out. When asked comment about the progress made by the cities, Singh said Chennai and Coimbatore, which had entered the mission under the first phase, were now into project execution stage after completing detailed project reports and tender works.