Smart City agency seeks residents’ suggestions for development

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 13

Amritsar Smart City Ltd (ASCL), a government agency formed to implement the Smart City project here, has started garnering opinions of people from residential and commercial areas to boost the infrastructure and civic amenities in the holy city.

In a move to further engage and deliver quality projects, a meeting with residential and market associations was organised by Amritsar Smart City Ltd on Wednesday.

Urban experts and local dwellers from different walks of life sat together for hours, sharing their ideas regarding infrastructure development of the city.

Rajiv Gulati and Sanjiv Mehra from Basant Avenue, Tarundeep Singh Ghuman, president of Rani Ka Bagh Association, Balbir Singh Nagra and BS Sohal of Guru Amardas Association, Deepak Babbar from Friends View area, Nirmal Singh Bedi and Suresh Kumar from Chheharta, Prabhjot Kaur from District Library, Pawan Kumar Sareen from Katra Jaimal Singh Market Association and Baldev Singh from Pink Plaza Market Association took part in the meeting.

Nirmal Singh Bedi said the government should ensure uninterrupted execution of its projects, ensuring least hassle and implementation time. He demanded public participation to make the projects success.

Traffic and parking of vehicles were found to be the biggest troubles on city roads.

Another participant, Prof Balvinder Singh, conservation specialist, said that the city stakeholders were never involved in various projects, such as construction of approach roads, redevelopment of areas around Golden Temple, elevated road, BRTS, facade improvement of Jallianwala Bagh entry, Heritage Street, HRIDAY, Gobindgarh Fort and Rambagh.

“This is for the first time stakeholders have been involved from day one. There is a need to revive lost faith of the stakeholders,” he remarked.

The meeting was chaired by Deepti Uppal, CEO, ASCL, along with Team Leader Col Manu Chaudhary, Senior Designer Amit Kumar Singh in presence of other officials.

Some of the participants expressed resentment over the present situation of the city’s cleanliness, sewage system, carelessness of residents with regards to the newly-constructed buildings and places. They were happy that the authorities gave importance to their suggestions.

Deepti threw light on various projects that are being undertaken by the ASCL. She mentioned that she had been meeting internal and external agencies at her office for inputs and decisions regarding projects implementation.

The CEO was of the opinion to have more people engagement through meetings, interaction sessions, social media and other means.