Unfinished projects, a cloud of dust and roads full of potholes is what the citizens of Jabalpur received in the name of Smart City.
Jabalpur is one of the 7 cities which have been earmarked for the Smart City Project. Jabalpur was also one of the 20 cities which have been selected in the first round. Despite the fact that crores of rupees have been doled out for the city’s facelift to a Smart City, the ground situation is completely different.
Unfinished projects, a cloud of dust and roads full of potholes; this is what the citizens of Jabalpur received in the name of Smart City. The sewer line project is incomplete and already 400 crores of taxpayers money have gone down the drain. Worse, the project is paying crores of rupees to consultants who are supposed to suggest the most economical and quickest way to complete the Smart City project.
According to information from the Smart City officials, there are 15 experts who have been engaged to give advice. It includes 11 Civil Engineering, 2 IT experts and 2 Electrical Engineering experts. All the experts are being paid lakhs of rupees but the output is not visible. The sewer line project is incomplete since the contractor who was given the tender has left the project halfway.
The data on Smart City Project for Jabalpur city is available here. It presents a very sad picture with un-updated data.
The citizens of Jabalpur are left to deal with open manholes and incomplete sewer lines. One fails to understand how this situation arose in spite of having 11 Civil Engineering experts. In all probability, these experts could be well-connected people with the right political approach to serve as experts and have a gala time on the public’s hard-earned money.
The consultant agency that was given the task of monitoring the progress of the Smart City project failed to fulfil its obligations. The agency was to ensure the quality of the construction work and see to it that it is completed within the stipulated time period. However, on the ground, nothing seems to be working.
The residents of Jabalpur have seen the pace and the quality of work under the Smart City Project. In other cities, like Indore and Bhopal, the sewer line project was completed five years ago. However, the sewer line project is still incomplete in Jabalpur. It has been the bane of the city that it did not have any credible leaders from either party who would take up the cudgels on behalf of the city.
The different construction work under the Smart City project is moving at a pace that it is not possible to complete in the coming five years. The population of Jabalpur has resigned to their fate of dealing with the dust from the incomplete projects for the major part of the last decade and it seems their ordeal is not going to end any time soon.
Images Source: smartcities.gov.in/node/118