Meet held for Rajkot facelift

After the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) zeroed in on Rajkot among 68 cities under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM) scheme, a meeting was held to chalk out the the future vision print of Rajkot in year 2021.

The meeting, held on Tuesday at Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC), witnessed participation from World Bank representatives, Wilber Smith Associates (WSA) officials, RMC officials, counsellors and eminent citizens.

Prime emphasis in this interactive meet was by and large laid on City Planning Process and City Development Plan (CDP).

Elaborating on the City Development Plan, Vijay Padmanabhan, Country Director, WSA said, "This plan is to be developed through consultative process and addresses the city's infrastructure demand by year 2021. Present CDP estimates infrastructure investment valuing worth Rs 7,640 crore and the same has been approved by Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM)."

However, to ensure that the benefit of development reaches at grassroots' level, we have organized this meet, he added.

Detailing about the sub-project investment of the CDP estimates of Rs 7,640 crore, Vijay Anadkat, Special City Engineer of RMC said, "Of the total fund, 31 per cent will be utilized towards road improvement and traffic management, 29 per cent will be for improved water supplies, 15 per cent will be utilised for sewerage and 9 per cent will be for storm water drainage."

The rest will be for community upgrading, Aji River Development Plan, solid waste management, social infrastructure and urban governance, he further said.

CDP will by and large focus on Growth Management, Environmental Infrastructure, Community Upgrading, Social Infrastructure, Implementation Assistance, Institutional & Financial Sustainability, assured Anadkat.

"Along with Rajkot Municipal Corporation other statutory bodies including Rajkot Urban Development Authority (RUDA), Gujarat Urban Development Mission, Gujarat Chamber of Commerce, Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation, Non-governmental Organizations, Educational Institutions, Indian National Trust for Art, Culture and Heritage (INTACH) and others will also equally participate in this ambitious project," explained Mukesh Kumar, Municipal Commissioner, RMC.

World Bank representive Chris Heymens, senior municipal development specialist of water and sanitation programme emphasized on long term asset management and improvised services, rather than targeting a short-term solution.

The focus of this project should be more or less on managing the assets for long-term and improvising the services and quality of life, stressed Chris.

Our present task is to involve as many as possible people in such sessions and invite their feedback, experiences and suggestions, Mukeshkumar said.

"We will further allow them to identify their areas of interest and join the stakeholder group of their choice for which we are going to take out a campaign by contacting individuals and experts on one to one basis and addressing the masses too," he added.