Work in progress to make Warangal smart city

Warangal: The development works in Warangal during the last five years do not indicate a rosy picture, but the way things started to take shape present a rosy picture for Warangal, the cultural capital of Telangana.

Aimed at transforming Warangal as a liveable, clean, green, safe and secure, and citizen-friendly city, the Greater Warangal Smart City Corporation Limited (GWSCCL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) incorporated on August 18, 2016, has envisaged developmental plan under two categories – Area-based Development (ABD) and Pan-city.

The SPV has sought the consultancy services of LEA Associates South Asia Pvt Ltd in Consortium with PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt Ltd for designing and developing the project components.

The Smart City works included 81 sub-projects under seven themes at an estimated cost of Rs 2,331 crore. While works under ABD costs

Rs 2,136 crore, the pan city proposals would amount to Rs 195 crore.

Sharing information with The Hans India, Municipal Commissioner and CEO of the Smart Cities Mission, N Ravi Kiran said, "construction of smart roads to the extent of 35 kilometres at an estimated cost of Rs 135 crore has been planned.

While work on 5-kilometre road is underway, tendering process for 10 kms is completed and rest is in designing stage." The smart roads would have bicycle tracks, sewerage, drainage, optical fiber, street lighting, landscaping, street art etc, he said.

In a bid to ensure road safety and to end the traffic woes in the city, the SPV has developed 15 junctions located between Kadipikonda and police headquarters with an outlay of Rs 44 crore. This apart, work is on to set up solar reflectors, open gyms etc in 37 State-run schools in Greater Warangal region.

The Commissioner said Rs 3.5 crore has been spent on infrastructural development in libraries. Beautification of Bhadrakali, Waddepally, Ursugutta, Chinna Waddepally and Bandham cheruvu is in progress with an estimated cost of Rs 130 crore.

The public garden in Hanamkonda is getting a facelift with Rs 11.5 crore. Walkways, food court, digital library, auditorium etc to come up in the public garden. To keep the city precincts clean, the SPV has plans to procure road sweeping vehicles.

"In all, 10 out of 81 works have been completed. The SPV had issued work order to 13 works. While 24 works are under tendering process, detailed project report (DPR) for 14 works have got approval.

The preparation of DPR for the other 20 works is yet to be completed. So far, the Central Government has released Rs 92 crore as part of Smart Cities Mission. The SPV needs Rs 450 crore by December 2019 to carry the works, Ravi Kiran said.