Smart Cities Mission promotes preservation & development of open spaces - parks, playgrounds, and recreational spaces in order to enhance the quality of life of citizens, reduce the urban heat effects in urban areas & promote eco-balance. #TransformingUrbanLandscape
Smart Cities Mission promotes the identity of the city - based on its main economic activity, such as local cuisine, health, education, arts and craft, culture, sports goods, furniture, hosiery, textile, dairy etc.
100 Smart Cities are implementing projects relating to conservation of local heritage, development of public spaces such as waterfronts, parks & open spaces transforming the existing urban areas into more accessible & vibrant public places. #TransformingUrbanLandscape
Cities have made innovative use of vacant or under-utilised urban land parcels converting them to vibrant public spaces through place-making. These initiatives optimise the use of under-utilised public spaces and contribute to public health & well-being of citizens.
As on July 2020, public space projects worth over ₹800 crore have been completed & projects worth ₹7,000 crore are being implemented at present.
Citizens of Coimbatore Smart City can now enjoy the Periyakulam Lake Promenade, which offers a picturesque view of the lake, a cycle track, cafeteria with a rooftop and much more. It has benefitted citizens across the pan city.
Chennai Smart City walks ahead with the redesigning of 1.2 km sub-arterial road & creation of a pedestrian plaza equipped with facilities for pedestrians including senior citizens, persons with disabilities, children & the general public. #TransformingUrbanLandscape
This has improved accessibility, prioritized non-motorized transport, decongested & removed encroachments & enhanced social cohesion. #TransformingUrbanLandscape
Citizens of Kohima Smart City are engaging in an awareness campaign on plastic waste disposal, waste segregation, tree plantation & drainage of water, with the objective to create a plastic-free, clean, green & hygienic city. #TransformingUrbanLandscape
Janmabhoomi Park, spread across 10,000 sqm in Kakinada Smart City has seen a revamp with the objective to improve social inclusion through increased access to green open spaces for recreation, sports & social interactions.
Thiruvananthapuram Smart City is upgrading 9 existing public toilets, redeveloping 4 parks, 6 bus shelters, 2 heritage trails & 3 information kiosks. As a result, sanitation has improved with a rise in ODF areas, tourism increased leading to greater revenue generation.
Kakinada Smart City identified unused public spaces at four locations to convert into sports grounds, where basketball, volleyball courts & open-air gymnasiums have been executed. Smaller neighborhood parks have been upgraded with playing facilities for children & open gyms.
New Town Kolkata Green Smart City Corporation Limited (NKGSCCL) launched the project ‘Barrier-free pedestrian walkway’. The 1km walk away will make walking & crossing roads extremely convenient for pedestrians, while cycle tracks will endorse the use of NMT.
New Town Kolkata Smart City has provided its citizens with a 14.5 km seamless & barrier-free pedestrian & cyclist-friendly pathway network spanning the city connecting all major parks. This initiative has helped improve the quality of life by promoting green modes of transport.
Indore Smart City has given a makeover to Indore’s famous food street ‘Chhappan Dukan’. The entire area has been redeveloped as ‘smart food street’. Entry of vehicles has been restricted between MG Road & Chandni Chowk, a mechanized parking facility has been planned in the area.
Coimbatore Smart City is implementing several eco-restoration projects for the 8 lakes of Noyyal Basin, namely Krishnamurthy, Selvampathy, Kumarasamy, Selva Chinthamani, Periyakulam, Valankulam, Singanallur & Kurichi.
On the north bank of Periyakulam in Perur By-Pass Road, the Lakefront promenade has been developed. The entire 1.3 km stretch of lakefront has been designed for open-air recreation with provision for food kiosks, open plazas, a cycling track & an Amphitheatre.
Utilizing space under flyovers at Coimbatore Smart City:
Space under Valankulam flyover has been attractively developed as part of the Lake Rejuvenation project in Coimbatore Smart City. This space was previously used for dumping garbage & building debris.
Kanpur Smart City redevelopment project on ‘Beautification of Naveen Market’ has uplifted the face of the market with a dedicated pedestrian area, open area for events, green area & by banning the entry of vehicles inside the premises of the market.
Vadodara Smart City has developed & beautified the 55,164 sq.m Harni Motnath Lake & adjoining area under the PPP model. The area also has a food court, party hall, gardens, boating facilities & facilities like toy train & zip-line for kids.
The edges of the lake have been covered with natural
fiber nets where more than 2,000 saplings have been planted and the used by the 75 indigenous species of birds to make nests.
During my recent visit to National Botanical Garden in Lucknow, I discovered many wonders of God’s own nature, some extremely beautiful plants that are being conserved/researched here. I immediately had the urge to capture these beautiful plants & learn about their nature & being
I would like to share all the aspects & beauty of these plants, one each day in this series of ‘Plants of National Botanical Garden, Lucknow’.
I am sure you all, my nature loving friends, would be happy to know about these & visit this garden soon!
Visited LightHouse Project site (LHP) at Perumbakkam in Chennai today. Hon’ble PM laid the foundation of this work of constructing 1,152 G+5 houses on 1 January 2021. Ms Sirke is using Precast Concrete Construction Technology from Finland to deliver this work in less than a year.
Was extremely impressed to see the progress on site. On the one hand, raft, base concrete slab etc are going for 4 towers, precast elements like roof slab, hollow columns, stairs etc are being cast in a temporary factory type of set up around 200 metres away from the site.
A Third Party expert body will be monitoring the quality.
Ms Sirke’s senior official told me that they guarantee life for 100 years & if maintained well, these houses will last for many more years. Could observe resource efficiency, speed & meticulous precision work on site.
Heartiest congratulations to Govt of Tamil Nadu & their Koyambedu Tertiary Treatment Water RO Plant in Chennai for receiving Global Water Award 2020 for Wastewater Project of the Year!
It is an AMRUT funded Project to convert secondary treated water into better than drinking quality level.
Visited this Plant today. It is getting 60 MLD secondary treated water from the STP set up in adjoining plot, with capacity to produce 214 MLD water.
With this, after purifying through detailed process, consisting of stabilising, filtration with different levels of porosity & ozonisation, it delivers pure water with high quality.
This water is being taken by pipes to over 60 kms to be consumed by various industries.
Reviewed progress of flagship urban missions in Tamil Nadu today in Chennai. With nearly 50% urban population & 664 cities/ towns, this State is the most urbanised State in the country.
With focus of on enhancing ease in living & improving urban landscape, huge investments have been made in TN by my Ministry in last 6 years.
These include central assistance, State/ City contributions, individual investments & PPPs under various missions/ schemes.
Under AMRUT, works worth over ₹12,500 cr have been taken up on water/ sewer systems & accessible green parks. Over 6.5 lakh water & nearly 14 lakh sewer connections have given, around 4 lakh street lights turned LED etc.
Inspected 9 km metro section of Washermenpet to Wimco Nagar, which is ready for inauguration by Hon’ble PM tomorrow at 11 am in Chennai. This section covers very thickly populated areas of Northern Chennai.
It connects to large number of public/private huge sector industrial units & now connect them to airport, major railways & inter/ intra-city bus stations. Happy to interact with empowered transgender operators, who are fully trained to run New Washermenpet Station.
Wimconagar is themed on Swachh Bharat Mission. Happy to visit Aavin, a TN Milk Cooperative Booth & TRIFED Stall with Tribal India products as pioneer public facilities on the stations. The whole setup is is geared for tomorrow’s event.
Visited the Integrated Command & Control Centre (ICCC) developed by Chennai Smart City today. As a brain & nervous system of the city, it is delivering many services to improve quality of life of citizens.
For example flood control & rain water monitoring on real time basis with sensors/cameras help in better preparedness & quick response to any calamity.
It is used for solid waste management.
Garbage collection vehicles are tracked, health of 210 water bodies measured, citizens' grievances managed. It is also being used as a citizen service portal. Many other applications like citizens’ safety, traffic & public transport services, water/sewer SCADA are getting added.