In a review meeting with the Chief Minister at the Secretariat on Sunday, Shailesh Yadav, CEO of Smart City, informed that 52 out of 63 works under the Smart City project in Tripura have been completed, and the remaining 11 works are in various stages. The project has a budget of Rs. 1004.23 crores, and the completion of 52 works marks a significant milestone in its implementation.
The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary JK Sinha, Chief Minister’s Secretary Pradip Kumar Chakraborty, and other senior officials. The Chief Minister emphasized the importance of monitoring the adherence to building construction guidelines in the city area, especially in concrete houses. He ordered serious action against non-compliance of guidelines in such cases.
Abhishek Singh, Secretary of Urban Development Department, also discussed various issues like TUEP, Tripura Water Board, and TUDA. He informed that the total area of 20 urban bodies in the state, including Agartala Purnigam, is 239.83 square kilometers, and the total population of the city area is 9 lakh 51 thousand 315 people. There are 2 lakh 40 thousand 757 families in the urban area, and there are 334 total wards in twenty city bodies, including AMC.
Singh further informed that the Urban Development Department had taken up ten projects under the Amrut project as per the State Annual Action Plan, out of which eight projects have been completed, and the remaining two projects are nearing completion. The Amrut 2.0 project aims to install seventy new deep tube wells, nineteen modified iron plants, provide tap connections to 24,149 removal households, and develop six ponds, among other things.
Under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) project, 20 urban bodies, including Agartala Pur Nigam, have constructed toilets in 21,876 families in the area so far. Community and public toilets have also been constructed, and 2,715 cleaning workers are engaged in cleaning the city area. The project has also employed 1,294 members of 149 women-led self-help groups to collect waste from houses in 334 wards of the city.
Singh added that the Swachh Bharat Mission project currently has tertiary waste treatment plants in eight urban areas, and five more plants in Teliamura, Kailasahar, Kumarghat, Belonia, and Shantirbazar are nearing completion. Eighty-five waste sorting, segregation, cleaning, storage, and sale centers are operational in 20 urban areas in the state.
In the meeting, the secretary also said that a total of 87,217 houses have been sanctioned in six DPRs under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), out of which 50,175 houses have been completed. The construction of the remaining houses is in various stages, and the Chief Minister instructed the department to take necessary initiatives to ensure the completion of remaining houses sanctioned under the Prime Minister Housing Scheme (Urban) within the specified time.
Overall, the Smart City project’s completion of 52 out of 63 works and various other initiatives discussed in the review meeting show the state’s progress in urban development and infrastructure.
