Shena Agarwal, CEO, Ludhiana Smart City, elaborates on the city’s major projects like LED street lights, ICCC, upcoming tenders, the dream project of the city, and more.

Pace of progress

Ludhiana Smart City has seen a lot of progress over the last three to four years. Though the progress of the work initially slowed down and took some time to take off, the past three years have seen the pace pick up.

We are proud to say that works worth Rs 9 billion are in progress. We have completed about 35 projects under the Smart City Mission. Some of the major projects completed include pan-city LED street lights, ICCC, the renovation of the main water body that flows through the city, and many more.

Impact of the pandemic

With the pandemic, there was a pause in the work that had been going on for some time. Many of the tenders also suffered a setback and we had to redo the financial and most technical aspects of the project. The event took us back by a year or so, but now we are back at full speed.

Upcoming tenders and projects in the city

One is the sewer rehab project where we want to rehabilitate the entire sewer line of the city. Other new projects are sports projects, including a new indoor swimming pool. We will be floating these new tenders soon. There is also a project for the compaction and segregation of wet and dry waste. Other projects are all mostly in the implementation stage so we would be focusing on their completion.

Dream project

One of the major projects ongoing currently is the renovation of the BudhaNaala project. It is one of the major rivulets that flows through the city and joins the Satluj. We are looking to rehabilitate and rejuvenate the river under the smart city – it is a big project worth Rs 6 billion and is already under implementation.

Biggest achievement and challenge in the Smart Cities Mission

The biggest achievement is that the Smart Cities Mission gave us a platform where we could focus on major projects for the cities as a whole. It also incorporated digitisation into the cities and gave a different perspective to the city administration. However, I think we can do more if we involve people.