Smart city Ranchi marching with the vision to be a knowledge hub

Rakesh Kumar Nandkeolyar

Planning to come up with world-class institutions of educational excellence, Ranchi Smart City is well on its way to become a knowledge hub. Aided by advancements in Information Technology, the city is making great strides in creating infrastructure and services to deliver quality life to its citizens. Rakesh Kumar Nandkeolyar, General Manager, Ranchi Smart City Corporation Limited, talks about the roadmap ahead of the Ranchi Smart City, in an exclusive interview with Gopi Krishna Arora of Elets News Network (ENN).

What is the vision of smart city Ranchi? Also, please tell us about the ongoing projects under the programme.

The vision of Smart City Ranchi is to transform itself into a knowledge hub for educational excellence. Along with this, we want to create an efficiently-managed traffic and transportation system in the city, which is aided by Information Technology. There are two types of infrastructure developments taking place in Ranchi Smart City–Area Based Development (ABD) and Pan City Development.

We have 656.3 acres of land under ABD where we are developing the infrastructure. We have planned to auction the land after it is developed. As per the Master Plan, under ABD, we have allocated 20% of the land for institutional, 13% for residential, 11% for commercial use, 8 % for public and semi-public use, 11% for mixed use components, and the rest 37% of land will be utilised for other usages, i.e., for infrastructure development, greenery, park development, River front development etc.

Currently, the work is going on for integrated infrastructure development that includes components like land development, roads, water supply, sewerage, drainage, smart street lighting, power infrastructure and arboriculture. The cost of these projects is around Rs 470 crores and the deadline for completion is February 2021.

Besides, we have started work on 220/33 Kv GIS-based sub-station to ensure 24*7 power supply in the city. This project will ensure uninterrupted power supply and is the first-of-its kind in Jharkhand. The GIS-based sub-stations are different from conventional service stations as these are gas insulated service stations. The land requirement in these stations is 1/4th of the conventional ones but their reliability is more. The project cost is Rs 226 crores and the time of completion is September 2020.

Also, we are working on C4 (Command Control and Communication Centre). Its major components are ITMS, Smart Parking Management System, surveillance system, emergency call box, environmental sensors and WiFi in the city buses. This project costs around Rs 164.5 crores and will be completed by March 2020. This will be completed in two phases. We are planning to complete the first phase by December 2019.

We also have a public bicycle sharing project on PPP mode. In the phase one of the project, 600 bicycles and 60 dock stations have been made operational since March this year, and we are planning to complete the phase-two of the project by August this year. The project cost is Rs 21.81 crore, and the time span is of 6 years. C4 (Command Control and Communication Centre) & PBS is our pan city project. There are some other projects also. For example, we are making existing overhead transmission lines under ground as the smart city mission guidelines say that no power line should be over head. The cost for this project is Rs 17.7 crores and we expect to complete this by August 2019.

The project for supplying uninterrupted 24*7 potable water from Dhurwa dam is under progress. The project will be completed in November 2019 at the cost of Rs 10 crores.

What has the smart city to offer to big investors like real estate builders, hospital owners, corporate leaders, etc?

If we talk about the residential sector, we are planning to develop plots to build all kinds of flats, like HIG, MIG, LIG as well as EWS. Besides this, for commercial sector, we have plots to develop hotels, malls, offices, urban haat, etc. In the institutional sector, we have plots to build universities, health management and research institute, technical institute, Law College, economic school, hotel management institute, art and craft institute etc. Besides this, we have medical colleges and hospitals, skill development parks etc. on the development agenda.

“If we talk about the residential sector, we have plots to come up with all kinds of flats, like HIG, MIG, LIG and for EWS also. Besides this, for commercial sector, we are planning to develop hotels, malls, offices, urban haat, etc.”

RSCCL has decided that if top 100 QS ranking universities come to Ranchi to set up universities, we will provide them plot (land) for a token amount of just Rs 1. But this will apply to the first applicant only.

That apart, we have plots earmarked for two five-star and one three-star hotels, parks, urban haat, etc. A government-funded convention centre with 5,000 seating capacity is under progress. The work for Jharkhand Urban Planning and Management Institute (JUPMI), where urban planning and management courses will be studied, is underway. The institute will also train government employees in capacity building. An urban civic tower is also being constructed that will house government and private offices.

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