Punjab CM Virtually Launches Rs 1087 Crores Development Projects under Smart City and Amrut Schemes
Chandigarh, February 22: Punjab Chief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh on Monday virtually laid foundation stones and inaugurated aslew of projects worth Rs.1087 crores for holistic development of urban areasunder the Smart City and AMRUT schemes and urged the union government toinclude the holy city of Anandpur Sahib under the Smart City scheme, as atribute to Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur ji on his 400th Prakash Purab.
Thanking the people of the state for their overwhelmingsupport to the Congress party in the recently concluded Civic elections,Captain Amarinder said the mandate is a vindication of the pro-people policiesof his government. Pointing out that while the Congress had won 1410 of the2206 wards (64%), the chief minister said all the opposition parties had beendecimated because of their anti-people and vicious negative agendas. Helambasted the earlier Akali-BJP regime for ignoring the development of urbanareas and expressed confidence that the launch of these project will drivesustainable progress in these regions.
The chief minister said that he was particularly delightedtoday to lay the foundation stone of the Rs 721 crore Surface Water SupplyScheme for Amritsar city, his erstwhile Parliamentary constituency. He saidthis scheme would ensure access to clean drinking water to the residents of theholy city, instead of the contaminated and fast depleting ground water.
The chief minister said under the first phase of Urban InfrastructureImprovement Program (UIIP), 2065 projects have been started, with majoritybeing completed, at a cost of Rs.300 crores. He said another 4227 projects havebeen approved under the second phase and work on 1300 of them has alreadystarted.
Giving details of the progress of Smart City projects inAmritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Sultanpur Lodhi under his government, CaptainAmarinder said that of the total allocation of Rs.3000 crores, works worthRs.1246 crores had been started or completed so far. He said while tenders forworks worth Rs.918 crores had already been issued, the process of issuingtenders for works worth Rs.802 crores were already underway. The chief ministersaid in contrast to this
SAD-BJP regime (2007-17) had merely spent Rs 35 croresduring their decade long rule under this scheme.
He said his government had already allocated Rs 2785 croresunder the AMRUT scheme for 16 towns and work on projects worth Rs 2740 croreswas underway. Taking a dig at the Akali-BJP combine, the Chief Minister said,“they totally ignored this scheme and spent merely Rs 18 crores in 10 years oftheir rule”. He said the scheme aims at providing 100% Water Supply &Sewerage and so far 1072 Km of Water Supply and 698 Km of Sewerage pipelineshad been laid, besides the release of 69,304 Household Water Supply and 43,611Household Sewerage connections.
The projects that were inaugurated by the Chief Minister forBarnala included augmentation & rehabilitation of sewerage network andsewage treatment plant for 100% coverage, 74 Km Sewerage Line with 5740Household Sewerage Connections and 20 MLD Sewerage Treatment Plant at a cost ofRs. 105.63 crores. The holy city of Amritsar saw the inauguration of variousdevelopment projects of Rs.20.50 crore including upgradation of Fire FightingServices, Solid Waste Management Facilities and Development of Parks & OpenSpaces. At Khanna, a 29 MLD capacity STP at a cost of Rs. 25.16 crores werealso inaugurated.
Besides the Rs.721.85 crores for 24X7 Surface Water SupplyScheme at Amritsar, the Chief Minister virtually laid the foundation stones fordevelopment projects worth Rs.129.33 crores in Sultanpur Lodhi, the epicentreof the 550th Prakash Purb celebrations of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. These includedWidening & Strengthening of road from Dudwindi to Sultanpur Lodhi,Channelisation of Holi Bein and creation of Open Spaces, 4-Laning of KapurthalaRoad via Fattudhinga, Building of Integrated Command & Control Centre,Strengthening of Fire Services, Development of Three Parks namely Mori MohallaPark, Central Park & Jwala Park.
Similarly, the foundation stone of various works such as 15MLD STP at Basti Peer Dad, Improvement of Jalandhar Railway Station,Upgradation of power Line distribution system of Raunak Bazaar, WasteProcessing plant at Gadaipur with 5-year O&M included and a new road inUrban Estate Phase II and digitization of the existing Guru Nanak Dev Librarywere laid in Jalandhar (Rs. 41 crores). For Ludhiana, foundation stones for theEstablishment of Ludhiana Municipal Control Centre, An Integrated command andsurveillance centre for the city and the beautification of the Mini RoseGarden, were also laid. The total cost of these projects is Rs. 40 crores andtenders have already been invited for them.
Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra said that CaptainAmarinder had taken personal interest in ensuring proper hygiene and sanitationin the urban areas during the difficult phase of Covid-19 pandemic. He alsocongratulated the Chief Minister for spectacular victory in MC elections, whichwas nothing short of a clear mandate in the favour of pro-urban developmentinitiatives of present government.
The event, which was webcast at 900 locations across thestate, was attended by PPCC President, Sunil Jakhar, cabinet ministers,including Sunder Sham Arora, Bharat Bhushan Ashu and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot,MLAs, Mayors, councillors, IYC President, Brinder Singh Dhillon, ChiefSecretary, Vini Mahajan, and other senior officials of the Punjab government.