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With Naya Raipur now included as Smart Cities Mission, it will help in channelising new projects like community schools, upgradation of schools, affordable housing, green compliance on existing buildings, vertical gardens for public building, parks etc, says Mukesh Bansal, Chief Executive Officer, Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA), in conversation with Susmriti Sahu of Elets News Network (ENN).

“The citizens are engaged with the State authorities through various channels that include social media apps (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube), MyGov App, Survey Forms and direct citizen engagements.”

What has been the significant accomplishments of Naya Raipur as world’s first integrated city so far?

Naya Raipur is India’s first smart greenfield city. It is being developed in accordance with the provisions of Development Plan-2031 which is being finalised after a series of consultation at different levels.

Naya Raipur is divided into 40 sectors out of which 21 sectors are residential and, three are for Government offices and staff housing, others are earmarked for commercial, industrial, semi public and recreational activities. It is a matter of pride that the existing villages in Naya Raipur are an integral part of planning with a mandate to bring their amenities at par with the new development. It is the first city in India to adopt and implement TOD (Transit Oriented Development) approach with easily accessible transit nodes planned as per TOD guidelines.

Naya Raipur has over 100 km of state-of-the-art four-lane and six-lane roads with 53 kms of NMT network. Clean potable water is supplied 24X7 via a fully pressurised hydro pneumatic pumping system sourced through a 52 MLD Water Treatment Plant.

It is a zero discharge city with four decentralised STPs. The recycled water is used for watering the greens of the city.

It has 72 km of centrally controlled smart LED streetlighting. It has an intelligent public transport system with 13 BRT depots and 30 BRT buses.

It is also a home to premier health and educational institutes like Shri Satya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital, Vedanta Cancer Research Institute, IIIT, IIM, HNLU, and ITM etc. Currently, under the scope of the smart city project, an integrated Command and Control Centre is being developed at Sector 19 through which all the city operations shall be monitored and controlled. The project include city surveillance using CCTV cameras, intelligent transport system having speed and incident detection. It also includes SCADA for Electrical Distribution System, Water Distribution, and Sewerage System.

Naya Raipur is already developed on the concept of integrated city, now it has been chosen under Smart Cities Mission. What significance does it hold for residents?

With Naya Raipur now included as Smart Cities Mission, it will help in channelising new projects like community schools, upgradation of schools, affordable housing, green compliance on existing buildings, vertical gardens for public building, parks etc, aimed towards community on one side and infrastructure reinforcing projects like micro grid and solar energy, smart metering, rain water harvesting, real time water quality monitoring on the other side. This will help Naya Raipur to offer standards which no other brownfield city currently offers and no other Greenfield city is prepared to offer.

What are the plans of administration for Naya Raipur under Smart City project?

At present, the NRDA is a special area development authority constituted under the Chhattisgarh Nagar Tatha Gram Nivesh Adhiniyam 1973, as the nodal agency responsible for the planning and development of Naya Raipur.

At present, the entire area of 237.42 sq km is fully under the jurisdiction of NRDA which encompasses 41 revenue villages within three development blocks.

Moreover, after selection of Naya Raipur in the Smart City list, SPV is being formed currently. For the Naya Raipur, SPV will be single point of contact (SPOC) for all project developments, infrastructure improvements, operation of utilities and services and to carry out regulatory works like approval of building plans, advertisement and property taxation etc.

Recently an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) has been signed between Naya Raipur and PI data centre, tell us something about it.

Pi Datacentre will be investing Rs 198 crore approximately in Naya Raipur over a period of five years to develop a state-of-the-art tier-4 data center with many first-of-its-kind offerings like hosting, cloud, managed services and colocation services. It is built on an area of 10 acres. The facility will result in employment generation accompanied with strong CSR and being environment friendly. This creates an IT ecosystem for new companies in Naya Raipur and region where companies can quickly start their businesses tapping into Pi’s infrastructure with lower capex and quick time-to-market for new companies.

What are the opportunities, Naya Raipur encircles for IT & manufacturing sector?

The Naya Raipur is located in natural surroundings. It has been envisaged as a lively, vibrant city equipped with state-of-the-art physical, social and economic infrastructure. The city is serving as the administrative capital of the State. It also caters to the infrastructural needs of industry and trade in the region with abundant 24X 7 underground power supply and adequate water CSIDC to boost ESDM sector in the State. It is establishing a Green field Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) in Sector 22, Naya Raipur. The Government is giving 80 per cent subsidy on total land premium with payment done through Chhattisgarh IT department CHiPS (Chhattisgarh InfoTech & Biotech Promotion Society). The EMC cluster is being setup as per the EMC scheme of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India. This is the first electronics cluster in the State.

What are your plans to draw foreign investment in Naya Raipur?

The land being offered by NRDA to the investors and developers are litigation free. The Government has acquired the land and has developed the infrastructure for the further usage. Whenever an investor would seek investment, the infrastructure development charges would be levied on case to case basis. Similarly, the rate of plots will be decided before calling the applications. Land diversion fee will be borne by NRDA. It is the sole agency that will provide – land, layout, diversion, building permissions etc.

How do you see Naya Raipur in the race of savvy urban cities among other Indian smart cities in the coming future?

Naya Raipur’s importance is growing considerably as the major node in trade network and a host of industries in adjoining areas. It is expected that Naya Raipur will set an example of phased development in comparison to all other smart cities across the globe.

The most important aspect in the development and sustenance of Naya Raipur is based on continuous citizen engagement. The citizens are engaged with the State authorities through various channels that include social media apps (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube), MyGov App, Survey Forms and direct citizen engagements.

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