Rajkot gets nod for Rs 763 cr revamp

Of the 68 cities being considered by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) scheme, Rajkot is the only city in the western region to have been selected for development.

Vijay Anadkat, Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) Special City Engineer said, "We aim to spend Rs 763 crore under this project in five years. The plan is extendable to seven years, as JnNURM Scheme is targeted to end by 2011-2012, and the amount could stretch up to Rs 1,200 crore."

A team of experts, comprising officials from World Bank and US-based Wilbur Smith Consultancy Firm visited the Rajkot Municipal Corporation last Wednesday to discuss the future course of action with the Rajkot municipal authorities.

The scheme aims to provide reform driven, fast-track planned development of the identified cities. Of the four cities selected initially for the Model City Development Plan under JnNURM scheme, including Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Hyderabad, Rajkot is the only city selected in entire western India for this proposal.

"Based on the prime and requisite parameter of presenting a convincing City Development Plan (CDP), which on subject to approval, signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). Under this, we have to schedule our activities in a very detailed manner, based on which the funds to be allocated by MoUD with JNURM can be utilised for strengthening civic facilities," explains Mukesh Kumar, commissioner, RMC.

Of the total fund, 50 per cent will be provided by Government of India, 20 per cent will be by Government of Gujarat and the rest will be by RMC, he added.

MoUD selected only four cities for Model City Development Plan in initial stage. Following the approval of City Development Plan and after signing MoA, Rajkot being one such selection, entire project has been given to World Bank's Water Sanitation Management Program for monitoring it completely, on behalf of MoUD, which is in turn handed over to the US based consultancy firm Wilbur Smith Consultancy.

"As a result, Chris Huyman, Senior Urban Developer of World Bank and Vijay Padmanbhan, country director of Wilbur Smith met us on July 5 and would be presenting a report on July 17," said Mayor Dhansukh Bhanderi.

Even a working group consultation program is scheduled on July 24 in which blue-print of the entire project shall be discussed with the intellectuals and professionals at Rajkot and even they would be invited on the advisory board to be formed for monitoring this entire development process, added Bhanderi.

"If RMC is targeting to reach each and every citizen residing in the urban limit of the city, we will have to scale additional miles falling under RUDA and reach the masses there also providing them the essential civic facilities and services," said Nitin Bhardwaj, Chairman, RMC's Standing Committee.

Presently, RMC is managing 104.86 sq km spread, and with RUDA being involved in this scheme, facilities for additional 300 sq km will have to managed, which would include surrounding villages falling on the peripheri of RMC limits, including Mota Mauva, Kotharia, Shapar-Veraval, Velnathpara etc places, explained Anadkat.

"Rajkot shall have state of the art basic infrastructure, appropriate water supplies, drainage-sewerage and sanitation facilities and ofcourse well planned development of the city too, which is vision 2021 for the city and we are all laced to work in that direction," said Mukesh Kumar.