Div Com (J) chairs 11th BOD meeting of Jammu Smart City Ltd, several new projects approved

Jammu : Divisional Commissioner, Jammu Dr Raghav Langer, along with Additional Director General of Police, (Director JSCL) Mukesh Singh Tuesday chaired the 11th Board of Directors meeting of Jammu Smart City Limited.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Anshul Garg; Commissioner JMC, (Chief Executive Officer, Jammu Smart City) Avny Lawasa; Addition CEO, JSCL, Hitesh Gupta, VC JDA, Pankaj Malhotra, besides Chief Engineers of PWD, Jal Shakti, Irrigation & Flood Control, Director Mines & Geology; Deputy Directors of Tourism, senior functionaries of Project Management Consultancy (PMC) and other board members.
The CEO gave a detailed powerpoint presentation on the works taken up and completed so far besides future work plans under the smart city project. She also presented agenda points before the members for discussion and approval of various projects under smart city.
The BoD meeting approved several projects including Vertical Garden Phase-2, Library cum Cafeteria at Mubarak Mandi, Light & Sound Show at Bahu Fort, Kala Kendra, Oceanarium at Bage-e- Bahu, Parking at Panjtirthi Estate Qts. Premises and Improvement/Up gradation of drainage nallahs flowing into Tawi River and construction of STP etc. Project for development of oceanarium with walk through tunnel at Bagh-e-Bahu was kept on hold by the Chairman till further details are provided by the Administrative department.
Approval was accorded for publishing of e-NIT for various improvements, including Upgradation of Road and Drainage, wide walking area with table-top crossings, Pick-up/ drop-off locations, Priced parking, Decorative lighting, New water points, Tree line & Signage, Tactile path – for differently-abled, Benches and dustbins, Underground public utilities etc. along the Apsara Road, Residency Road, Raghunath bazaar areas. These new projects were approved for funding under JSCL.
The meeting decided to drop proposal for Complete Street Development of Janipur Road and Heritage Railway Stations as one is coming under alignment of proposed metrolite project and second due to non issuance of NOC by the Transport Department. The Trikuta nagar canal project was also dropped as it is also coming in the alignment of metrolite project.
The Hari Singh parking cum commercial development project was retained by the Board. However instead of JSCL equity, the same shall now be executed under PPP model (Design, Fund, Build, Operate & Transfer). The proposed funding pattern of Development of Tawi River Front project for giving major boost to the city & tourism promotion, was agreed by the Board.
The meeting had threadbare discussions on various important issues pertaining to the project including construction of embankment/ retaining wall, pier protection work of existing bridges, raising of Barrage and other components of the project.
The 3.5 KM (both side) long river front is proposed to be completed in 2 phases. The first phase starts from 4th bridge to Tawi Bridge and phase 2 from Tawi Bridge to Gujjar Nagar Bridge. It was informed that pathways would be constructed on both the sides (banks) of the river to provide easy access to the public.
The board members also discussed in detail the physical progress and status of execution of flagship projects like Integrated Command and Control Centre, Intelligent Traffic Management System, E-bill & pay for civic services etc. various administrative issues were also discussed in the meeting including filling up of vacancies, recruitments for Jammu Smart City Limited. The Divisional commissioner issued instructions to the executing agencies to expedite the works for their early completion. It was reiterated that the Rajbhawan is directly monitoring the pace of the projects, which ought to be of high visibility and high impact, with utmost quality. The Div Com directed concerned officers to keep ambit of projects for a longer horizon and complete the works in a time bound manner so that tangible results are achieved on the ground.