Slow take-off for Chennai Smart City

The Chennai Smart City project is expected to be delayed as local body officials said that the project feasibility remains to be studied.

  • Published On Aug 18, 2016 at 07:00 PM IST
CHENNAI: The Chennai Smart City project is expected to be delayed as local body officials said that the project feasibility remains to be studied. This could push the implementation of pan city solutions for the city as well as several of the retrofitting ideas proposed for T Nagar back by six to 12 months, according to corporation officials.

Sources said that Chennai Smart City Limited (CSCL), the special purpose vehicle tasked with executing the project, has formed sub-committees to study the feasibility of projects proposed under the 1,366 crore package. "This is to prioritise proposals under immediate, mid-term and long-term solution categories," the source said. The study's findings could also cut out a few proposals from the initial package.

"We have grouped together projects which will require multi-departmental coordination like the corporation and Metrowater or TNEB. We have drawn technical support at the executive engineer level from all of these departments and constituted the sub-committees," said a senior official.

Lack of site inspection and planning at the time of preparing the proposal has necessitated a feasibility study. "The initial proposal was drafted based on an overview of what the city needs. We didn't check for feasibility then," the official said.

For instance, fitting level sensors inside storm water drains is part of the retrofitting solutions for T Nagar. The sensors would help alert the authorities about rising levels of water during the monsoon. However, officials admitted that with the storm drains carrying sewage in many localities of T Nagar, this proposal may not come to fruition.

After the final proposal is drafted, the CSCL will bring on board project management units (PMU) to prepare a detailed project report.

In T Nagar, the smart city package aims to improve the locality's power and water supply, sewage and storm water drainage connectivity and functionality, solid waste management and sanitation, introduce pedestrian friendly footpaths and intelligent traffic management system.

As pan city solutions, the package includes flood monitoring, traffic and security surveillance networks among others.
  • Published On Aug 18, 2016 at 07:00 PM IST
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