Even Rs 1,000-cr Smart City push fails to move Ludhiana out of civic mess

Heaps of garbage strewn by the roadside, open and overflowing drains, encroachments on streets, potholed roads, parking woes, non-functional streetlights and freely roaming stray animals — “Smart City” Ludhiana doesn’t have much to boast of when it comes to amenities. And that too after an expenditure of Rs 935 crore under the Centre’s Smart Cities Mission.

The Smart Cities Mission (SCM) aims to transform 100 selected cities nationwide by enhancing infrastructure to provide quality life to the residents. Ludhiana Smart City Limited (LSCL), a Punjab Government company floated for the project, has claimed the completion of 61 projects worth Rs 688.81 crore. Another 13, worth Rs 207.1 crore, were under execution while nine, amounting to Rs 28.1 crore, were at the tendering stage, said an official. Called the industrial and financial capital of Punjab, Ludhiana has an estimated population of around 35 lakh.

All six MLAs whose constituencies fall within Ludhiana have alleged that unmindful spending has neither beautified nor developed the city, as was envisaged. The MLAs — Daljit Singh Grewal Bhola (Ludhiana East), Rajinder Pal Kaur Chhina (South), Ashok Parashar Papp (Central), Gurpreet Bassi Gogi (West), Madan Lal Bagga (North) and Kulwant Singh Sidhu (Atam Nagar) — belong to the ruling AAP and have demanded a high-level probe by either the CBI or the Vigilance Bureau into the alleged scam in the execution of the Smart City project.

“The entire SCM funds were either misutilised in a single constituency or misappropriated at the behest of the then ruling Congress leadership,” they said.

The allegations notwithstanding, Ludhiana ranked first among the three smart cities — Amritsar and Jalandhar the other two —being developed in Punjab and 49th among the 100 nationwide, as per the latest rankings released by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora, who reviewed the Ludhiana project’s progress during a meeting with LSCL Chief Executive Officer Aaditya Dachalwal here recently, told The Tribune that funds amounting to Rs 959.25 crore — Rs 490 crore Centre’s share and Rs 469.25 crore Punjab’s — had already been allocated. Of this, Rs 934.56 crore (97.42 per cent) had been utilised, which included Rs 475.06 crore released by the Centre and Rs 459.5 crore by Punjab, he said. “We are committed to turning Ludhiana, which has a significant migrant population, into a smart city. I have asked the authorities to improve the basic infrastructure,” said Arora.

When contacted, Dachalwal said, “The Smart City concept was an area-based plan, for which Ludhiana West Assembly segment was chosen following a proper voting procedure. In this segment too, only a certain portion was to be developed. While 25 per cent of the total funds were spent on the Buddha Nullah rejuvenation, we also focused on building necessary infrastructure such as streetlights, integrated command control centre, e-challaning system, CCTV cameras and sports infrastructure for the entire city. Those raising objections are oblivious to the fact that the SCM was never meant for the entire city.”