Some time back the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) decided to rope in the service of a consultancy company to make a bid for the inclusion into the government of India’s Smart City Mission. As of now the SMC is seeking feedback from the people of Srinagar to make its bid a stronger one so that the city is approved for the upgrade.

Until November last year alone, the SMC had received 30,000 odd hits for the project, 200 suggestions through questionnaires, 450 e-mails and 500 suggestions. Given the importance of the public feedback in the project materialization, it’s important to know what and how the common people want the Srinagar city to be developed.

After the SMC claimed that under the Srinagar smart city plan, the old Srinagar city would be uplifted with special focus on ‘heritage tourism’ in the area. 

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“We will uniformly paint them so that they look more tidy”, he said. Not divulging anything more except the 17-page “final draft proposal”, a top official from VPV talking to The Kashmir Monitor said the company however hoped in getting the proposal through with at the centre. Asked whether VPV was expecting to replicate the results for Kohima for Srinagar, he said VPV was “more than optimistic”.

The final draft proposal to get Srinagar secure a berth in the Smart City Mission, a flagship programme of the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, under which over hundred Indian cities are expected to be developed as ‘smart cities’ is ready now. Voyants Partnering Vision (VPV) a consultancy company which has earlier helped Nagaland to secure a berth among smart cities for Kohima, was earlier roped in by the SMC promptly, expecting it to replicate the results for Srinagar. Meant to give the city some kind of relief, the proposal is currently in the public domain for the all important citizen feedback, which the SMC hopes will reinforce the city’s case in meriting a berth among the other Indian smart cities. The draft proposal, if approved, would be followed by a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to be submitted by the SMC later.