‘Dhanbad biz community keen to invest in Ranchi Smart City Project’

Dhanbad: The Dhanbad business community is upbeat about getting an opportunity for investment in the Ranchi Smart City project and many of them are expected to invest heavily once the bidding process starts.“We are eagerly waiting for the bidding process which is all set to begin from October 1. It is a good initiative on the part of the state government to provide encumbrance-free land with no hassles of the CNT/SPT Act,” the president of the Jharkhand Industries and Trade Association (JITA) Rajiv Sharma said here on Thursday.Sharma, however, said though the government claims to provide state-of-the-art facilities of a smart town, the rates for residential purposes in the smart city are exorbitantly high for the general public.“The government should consider giving some discount to the residents or the majority of the residential and institutional plots would be acquired by rich people from outside the state,” he said.Sharma added, “Though the Dhanbad business community is now frightened of frequent ransom calls from miscreants and the police, despite all their attempts, have not been able to reign them in, the government should plan a smart city for a population of 10 lakh people in Dhanbad.”Echoing similar sentiments, the president of the Federation of Dhanbad Chamber of Commerce, Chetan Goenka, said a few businessmen from Dhanbad have already invested in the Ranchi smart city project and many more should follow suit. He also demanded the state government to plan similar projects for Dhanbad. The Ranchi Smart City Corporation Limited organized an investors’ meet in Dhanbad on Wednesday where the corporation’s CEO Amit Kumar informed that the investors would be provided land plots at one-third of the rate for this project which is spread over 656 acres of land in the Dhurwa locality of Ranchi with all facilities of a modern smart city. The corporation’s GM Rajesh, Kumar Nand, said they have plans to develop Ranchi into a knowledge hub and the Rs 1,000-crore project would be on a 50:50 cost sharing by the state and the Centre.

Bhopal: 8 years on, smart city still in pipeline

Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation Limited (BSCDCL) is focusing on land monetization to make the smart city project self-sustainable. Despite generating revenue from the sale of plots, the project has faced challenges such as encroachment and lack of infrastructure. The green cover has been affected by the development, and visible projects like parking and streetlights have been assigned to other agencies. The completion of the project, which was supposed to take two years, has been delayed. BSCDCL's controversial land acquisition has also been a political issue.