Plan to include more towns in Dharamsala Smart City project

[Jaswinder Singh Baidwan]

The Town and Country Planning Department is contemplating including Dehra, Nagrota Bagwan, Kangra, Jawalaji and Palampur in the Dharamsala Smart City Project.
Sources said the area within the Municipal Council limits had a population of about 22,000. As the area is comparatively small, the authorities are contemplating adding adjoining towns to the proposed smart city plan.
Dharamsala is among the 100 cities selected for development. But it will have to compete further to come under 20 cities.
Under the Smart City Scheme, in the first year, the government will select 20 cities across the country.
This means that the 100 cities, including Dharamsala, will have to submit a detailed development plan by December 15 to make it to the list of top 20 cities to be developed this year.
Since Dharamsala is a small town, consultants hired by the Town and Country Planning Department are mulling over clubbing the cluster towns in the plan.
The department will propose to develop various facilities such as solid waste treatment plant under the public private partnership (PPP) mode by clubbing the facility for all cluster towns.
Director, Town and Country Planning, JS Pathania said the department was planning to include cluster towns in the scheme.
He said even before the scheme was conceptualised, the state government was working on a plan to create clusters of towns in various parts of the state and create facilities for them under the PPP mode.
He said technical bids had been invited from consultants who would propose plans for developing Dharamsala. Officials of the department and civic body will hold meetings in various wards to reach a consensus on the plan.
Executive officer of the Dharamsala Municipal Council Chaman Lal said: “We want people of the town to give smart ideas. Facilities such as solid waste management, sewerage management and parking places will be on the development list. A system will be developed to hear the grievances of residents. They will not have to make the rounds of offices,” he said.