A slew of projects worth Rs 1,087 crore were inaugurated by Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. The minister virtually laid foundation stones and inaugurated various projects for the holistic development of urban areas under the Smart City and AMRUT schemes. Moreover, as a tribute to Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur on his 400th Prakash Purab, he urged the Modi government to include the holy city of Anandpur Sahib under the Smart City scheme. Singh laid the foundation stone of the Rs 721 crore Surface Water Supply Scheme for Amritsar. He was quoted in an IE report saying that instead of the contaminated and fast depleting ground water, this scheme would ensure access to clean drinking water to the residents of the holy city.
According to the CM, 2,065 projects have already been started under the first phase of the Urban Infrastructure Improvement Program (UIIP), with majority of them being completed, at a cost of Rs 300 crore. Under the second phase of UIIP, another 4,227 number of projects have been approved and work on 1,300 of them has started already. On the progress of Smart City projects in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Sultanpur Lodhi under his government, the CM said that of the Rs 3,000 crore total allocation, so far, works worth Rs 1,246 crore had been started or completed. Singh further said while tenders have been already issued for works worth Rs 918 crore, the process of issuing tenders for works worth Rs 802 crore were underway already.
He said under the AMRUT scheme his government had already allocated Rs 2,785 crore for 16 towns and work was underway on projects worth Rs 2,740 crore. According to Singh, the aim of this scheme is to provide 100% water supply and sewerage. So far 1,072 km of water supply and sewerage pipelines of 698 km length had been laid, other than the release of 69,304 household water supply as well as 43,611 household sewerage connections. For Barnala, the inaugurated projects included augmentation, rehabilitation of sewerage network as well as sewage treatment plant for 100% coverage, 20 MLD sewerage treatment plant, 74 km long sewerage line with 5,740 household sewerage connections, at a cost of Rs 105.63 crore.
For Amritsar, the minister inaugurated various development projects of Rs 20.50 crore including upgradation of fire fighting services, development of parks and open spaces as well as solid waste management facilities. While a 29 MLD capacity STP was inaugurated at Khanna at a cost of Rs 25.16 crore. Other than the Rs 721.85 crore 24×7 Surface Water Supply Scheme at the city of Amritsar, the CM virtually laid the foundation stones for development projects worth an amount of Rs 129.33 crore in Sultanpur Lodhi.
The minister also laid the foundation stones of various works like 15 MLD STP at Basti Peer Dad, waste processing plant at Gadaipur, upgradation of power line distribution system of Raunak Bazaar, improvement of Jalandhar railway station, a new road in Urban Estate Phase II as well as digitization of the existing Guru Nanak Dev Library were laid in the city of Jalandhar, at a cost of Rs 41 crore. For the city of Ludhiana, he laid the foundation stones for the establishment of Ludhiana Municipal Control Centre, an integrated command and surveillance centre as well as the beautification of the Mini Rose Garden. These projects cost Rs 40 crore in total and for them, tenders have already been invited.