Sri Krishen Kaw
Jammu: On this day, if one intends to take a round of Jammu Smart City, they will not be able to find anything ‘smart’ other than the bad condition of roads, dirt, and filth on road sides, unnecessary traffic jams, and much more without taking any notice by the men at helms either at district level administration or JKSCPL itself.
The major roads of Jammu city, which remain overcrowded mostly due to heavy vehicular inflow and public rush right from the main entrance of the historic Amar Mahal Palace gate (The gateway of Jammu Raj Bhawan, too), known as BC Road, has many potholes in the middle of the road. On the same road, from Bakshi Nagar crossing to Jewel Chowk via General Bus Stand, this road is completely in bad shape. Be it from Indira Chowk point to below Gummat Chowk, the Smart City roads are dilapidated and full of ditches and potholes, making commoners’ simple walking even an uphill task.
Similarly, the other roads connecting Jammu main with its surrounding areas, including New Plot-Janipur-Bantalab road, Rehari-Subash Nagar-Paloura road, Canal Head-Tala Tillo-Bohri road, speak volumes of neglect in respect of maintenance and failed drainage system. Besides, the interior roads in posh Gandhi Nagar and Trikuta Nagar localities have met the same fate as the other ones. On the other hand, one can witness heaps of garbage and other filthy materials lying on the road sides in almost every nook and corner of the Jammu city, mocking the tall claims of the departments responsible for maintenance.
On the name of SmartCity, some wayfinding boards and sign boards of vital installations have been erected at several points across the city, including television monitors. It does not serve the purpose at all. A time frame needs to be fixed for ongoing projects, and their completion deadlines should be the order of the day, and helmsmen should be held responsible for any sort of delay or compromise so that any particular work taken into hands must reach its conclusion in a smooth way, and people heave some sigh of relief out of their difficulties. Otherwise, inauguration of projects will continue without any completion, and the city will continue to present a shabby look as ever. And if somewhere you complete some work like the recently erected gate on Apsra road in Gandhi Nagar with a dysfunctional clock on its beam at the top becomes nothing but a joke in the town.
Moreover, our development works do not last for longer periods. Apart from the rainy season, incessant rains occur every now and then, causing water logging on streets, which exposes the tall claims of a proper drainage system as roads can be seen over flooded at that point in time, giving a tough time to commuters to walk over them. But to the much surprise, as no one is asked about the failures of the drainage system, nor anyone replies to such an unheard question, and it continues so on.
To overcome the problems of cities when these grow into bigger ones in terms of population, infrastructure, vehicular traffic, and other similar things, then threadbare discussions are held for carving out a small city into a big city with developmental infrastructure, town planning, big healthcare, sanitary and seepage system with management, and a significant expansion in roads, buildings, upgradation of water, energy, education sectors under smart governance, the picture of a smart city comes forward into being, which overshadows the lackings we have in an usual small city. Transformation of a small city with smart infrastructure and expansion in all fields is known as a smart city. A city people take pride in calling their own; a city people own and take responsibility for; a city that is an epitome of good, sustainable and healthy living, and a city where the ‘happiness quotient’ is high.
Meanwhile, several projects in Jammu and Kashmir regarding carving out the smart cities of Jammu and Srinagar have taken administration into its hands. The developmental work is going on at full swing, according to Government sources, but when Jammu’s Smart City project reaches its completion and sees the light of the day, it will remain until a constant and a continuous process of wait for the people of Jammu.