Karnal yet to get Rs 200 cr as Smart City fund

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, April 19

Karnal is yet to receive its first instalment of Rs 200 crore from the Union government for developing it into a Smart City.

It was announced on June 23, 2017, that Karnal was included in the list of cities to be developed as smart cities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced to develop Karnal into a Smart City during an Assembly election rally in 2014. Later, it was also reiterated by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar several times.

As per the claim of the Union Government, Karnal was to get Rs 1,295.81 crore for the development of 720 acres in the city within a period of five years, including Rs 1,061.1 crore for the area based development programme and Rs 149.9 crore for the pan city solution.

The government has constituted a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Karnal Smart City Limited and an inter-departmental co-ordination committee has also been constituted for better implementation of the project, but still a lot needs to be done as the project management consultant has not been appointed so far.

“We have written to the Ministry of Urban Development to release the Central Government share for the smart city project, which is Rs 200 crore. We are hopeful that this amount will be released soon,” said Priyanka Soni, Municipal Commissioner and SPV CEO.

The Union government should not make a mockery of this project and should release the fund for the development of the city at the earliest,” said Rajiv Kumar, a local resident.