With big players from the corporate sectors coming to invest in Ranchi, the city is all set to implement the smart city projects and take this beautiful city at the top of Smart Cities in India. In an exclusive interview with Elets News Network’s Shivani Tyagi and Manish Arora, Ranchi Municipal Commissioner, Prashant Kumar disclosed his strategy for achieving this goal
What is your vision for Smart City Mission?
Jharkhand has a number of reputed institutions like BIT Mesra, Birsa Munda agricultural University, Xavier’s Institute of Social Service (XISS) and many more. These institutes attract a lot of students across the globe and therefore it is a challenge for us to make Ranchi into a Smart City. People would opt for Ranchi or Jharkhand as a whole if we can provide them with good infrastructure, transport, safety and health facilities. Smart City Mission needs step by step intervention and we are making the advancements accordingly.
We realize that until and unless we bring public transportation at centre stage, transport issues cannot be solved. We are planning to widen the roads and bring it high technology solutions so that higher vehicle inflow will not create a ruckus on roads. For safety on roads, we are installing CCTV and PTZ cameras. We are also launching an app called Ranchi one app, which will be a one point solution to all traffic related queries. This will give information on chocked and the most polluted routes.
Ranchi is the only one among other smart cities to opt for green fields. Ranchi has 7000 acres of unused land out of which 2000 acres of land has been taken by government of Jharkhand for developing the core capital area.
We are planning to develop the river front and transform it into continuous river park. We also have plans for setting up a huge amusement Park in Jharkhand; this will boost the tourism. Three renowned universities are also planning to set up their campuses in Jharkhand
What are your plans for attracting IT companies, industries and amusement parks to Ranchi?
We are planning to develop the river front and transform it into continuous river park. We also have plans for setting up a huge amusement Park in Jharkhand; this will boost the tourism. Three renowned universities are also planning to set up their campuses in Jharkhand. We have already received the Letter of Intent (LOI) from the department of higher education & technical education JW Marriott Group had also approached us and showed their interest in Ranchi. They have sent us a Letter of Intent (LOI), saying that we want to put up a five star hotel and are striving for a land. Tata group has also requested us for a land for setting up their corporate office in Ranchi. We have a similar request from Reliance Jio as well.
Where do you see Ranchi in next two years and what are your plans for SPV?
Two years is a short span, give me five years and we will resolve all the major issues concerning to traffic. We are going to make 7 acre of Eco Park with latest facilities. This will also act as a water harvesting source. We are taking sustainable measures in making waste water management.
SPV will complete soon and we also have cabinet’s approval. All the directors have signed the memorandum and it is going to be registered in RAC in a week’s time. It’s a joint venture between State and Municipal Corporation.
What is your plan for attracting IT companies?
We are planning to bring professionals from the IT sector on board. We are trying to hire one PMC or PMU. This will further help us in hiring other consultants, domain consultants, contractors. We have one big PMU with one consultant as our strategy partner and we are developing the whole thing not as a project but as modules.
What are the major initiatives taken under Swachh Bharat Mission by your organisation?
We have sanctioned 30,000 individual toilets out of which 2000 have completed. We have 50 community and public toilets and orders for refurbishment of 280 community and public toilets have been given. Apart from the solid waste management we have assigned the work to Essel INfra and Hitache. These companies will start the work from 2nd October. We are investing around 77 crore rupees as capital investment to make a quantum improvement in the city. We will then go for 100% door to door collection, processing of waste, presently we are not dumping waste, we dump it in the plant, burn the waste and create energy.