Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): People-friendly SMART initiatives like Public Bike Sharing (PBS), GPS-enabled e-bikes, cycle tracks, Wi-Fi poles, ICCC launched with much fanfare under the Rs 1000 crore Smart city project have failed to yield desired results. Blame it on handling and lack of awareness on the part of the people or the failure of the authorities to maintain and ensure their purposeful usage, the money spent on these initiatives is going down the drain.
Smart city administration had launched them saying that it’s for public interest and goes with the state government commitment to provide a clean and green environment. Many of these facilities were provided on PPP mode and this Smart City administration had not invested any amount on it but continued to earn revenue from it.
Like e-Bikes were introduced on PPP mode and from this the Smart city is getting 10% from the company concerned. Similarly, the 150 Wi-Fi poles in the state capital were installed on PPP mode. Thus the Smart City administration has not invested any paisa on it. Under PBS, there are around 500 bicycles, the number of e-bikes stands at 75 in the state capital. But most of them are in bad shape now because of the bad handling and no servicing and maintenance. Cycle tracks developed on smart city road, Hoshangabad Road and other parts of the city have merely been used as parking lots.
Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) , a cloud-based Universal Internet of Things (UIoT) platform launched to monitor the real-time status of various civic utilities is not yielding the desired results .
Got 2.5 lakh rides since introduction of cycles: Benal
Smart City CEO Gaurav Benal claimed the success of Bicycles and e-bikes saying that city people are making use of the facility. We have got 2.5 lakh rides since the introduction of cycles, he added.
Our teams regularly monitor and inspect the cycle track to ensure that it is being used for the purpose for which it was designed. If it is being used as a parking space then it is the duty of police to initiate action against the people parking their vehicles on the dedicated cycle-lane. There is no issue with people using the track for their morning walk but parking on the lane is not acceptable. We also have to raise awareness among people to handle e-bikes carefully and ensure that they are not damaged. Through ICCC, we control most of the facilities. We are earning Rs 22- 26 lakh monthly.
Ex-mayor seeks probe in smart city projects
Former Mayor Alok Sharma said, “There must be a proper and thorough probe in the smart city project. There is a need to create awareness among the public before introducing the schemes. Initiative of PBS was introduced in the city as an IAS officer was fond of cycling. When it is difficult to ply rickshaw manually in the city because of geographical reasons, how can one expect that introducing a cycle will be successful. People representatives were members of the advisory board but in 5 years of my tenure not a single meeting was held.”
Facilities Cost
Bicycles (500) Rs 5 crore
e-bikes(75) PPP mode
Cycle tracks Rs 3.9 crore
Wi-fi poles(150) PPP mode
ICCC Rs 700 crore
