GUWAHATI: The Smart City plan envisions establishing Guwahati as a Regional Hub for the northeast India and a World Class City by anchoring and reorienting the city towards its natural assets of being the economic, education, health and IT- capital of the northeastern region of India. A couple of goals to achieve this include becoming a flood-resilient city and to establish a de-congested city.
The micro experience of Sarania is a harsh reality of the city that is still struggling with the core issues of water logging, garbage disposal, inefficient management and a lack of civic sense from the citizens’ part.
Speaking to G Plus, Pronab Baruah, OSD, Smart City Project highlighted the apathy and indiscipline of the citizens towards the city’s development that hinder this goal.
“There is a total disregard for tax-payers’ money and GMC should impose strict fines on people who violate basic norms like proper garbage disposal. We have led numerous campaigns regarding this,” said Baruah.
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Although the Smart City project has spread awareness regarding proper habits but no targeted schemes dealing with the perennial problems of the city has been enforced so far.
Along with the lack of implementation, the Smart City Project faces concerns of dense human construction near the hills where the water directly flows down from the hills. There is no space to even allow emergency services such as fire brigades in the narrow lanes of these places.
However, it would not be wise to put the entire blame of this mess to lack of civic sense and planning. A lot has to do to with the lack of manpower of GMC to which both Baruah and GMC commissioner themselves “admit to.”
Thus, the same old issues that Guwahati faces has now taken a new shape mixed with the aspirations of the younger millennial generation, a by-product of the post 90s liberalisation of the economy. The ambitions of these people as well as the Smart Project collide with the existing problems of the city.
