Monday, 19 June 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Central government recently extended the deadline for the Smart Cities Mission to June 2024 but the local traders opined that the situation of ongoing works under the Smart City projects in Dehradun will not improve if the departments concerned do not work in coordination with each other. They said that they doubt the officials will be able to finish all projects on time as per the new deadline considering the performance in the city so far. Narayan Kala who works in a shop near Curzon Road said that most of the pending works under Smart City projects could have been finished sooner but with the extension, the officials are likely to adopt a more sluggish approach. He said, “I have seen the same spot being dug out multiple times in the past six months here and the work still appears to be unfinished.
There is always something going on here but it never seems to get completed. I think this is the condition of most of the ongoing Smart City projects here and I highly doubt they will be able to finish the remaining works with this speed by June next year.” A shopkeeper in the Paltan Bazaar area Harish Bhatt said that many shopkeepers suffered due to the inefficiency of the officials in the Smart City works in the area and opined that the extended deadline will not speed up the work considering the past records of the departments involved. He said, “In the past two years, the area was dug out so many times I have lost count. They have done the same work again and again like the work of laying tiles on roads that went bad in a few days. Water entered our shops multiple times due to their incompetent work as a result of which we had to bear losses. We lost several customers due to the never-ending digging in the marketplace. Finally, the work appears to be almost done in the area but we hope it does not get worse again during the monsoon. Honestly, I am not sure that the remaining Smart City work will be completed by next year if done at the same pace that has been followed till now.”
Talking about the deadline extension, the president of Doon Valley Mahanagar Udyog Vyapar Mandal (DVMUVM) Pankaj Masson said that the departments concerned lack coordination in their work and the Smart City projects will not be completed by June 2024 if they continue to work this way. He said that it takes several days to get a single thing done because officials concerned refuse to take responsibility stating that the said work falls under another department. “Lack of coordination is a major cause of delay in completion of the Smart City works. They have all the resources and it can certainly be done in a year if they work on their coordination. The Central government has also reduced the budget of Smart City works by almost 50 per cent which indicates that they are aware of how works are being done in this project. People are fed up with the never ending construction work in the city. These works should be completed by authorities concerned as soon as possible,” added Masson.
