Taking note of the slow progress over smart city projects, the Government of Uttar Pradesh recently summoned concerned officials and directed them to commence all the proposed development projects in June.
The move is to present smart development of major cities ahead of 2019 General Elections, a media report quoted sources as saying.
Agra was included in the list of smart city scheme in September 2016. A special purpose vehicle (SPV) was constituted then and registered under the companies act and named as “Agra Smart City Limited” and headed by the divisional commissioner.
Responsibilities of planning, appraising, approving, release of funds, implementation, management, operation, monitoring and evaluation of smart city development project were assigned to the SPV.
The SPV failed to accomplish its responsibilities, so they outsourced a private consultancy to prepare a detailed project report in September 2017, said sources.
Since project report by the consultant was rejected due to some technical flaws, clarifications were demanded from the consultant.
Rs 214 crore worth DRPs of smart city development works have already been finalised, according to Agra Municipal Corporation (AMC) officials.
Tenders will be out soon and the principal secretary has directed officials of cities to ensure the ground implementation of development plans under smart city schemes as soon as possible, said RK Singh, nodal officer-in-charge for Agra Smart City project, recently.
