Stating that the tourism will scale new levels in Jammu with the development revolution spearheaded under Smart City Mission, Dr Devansh Yadav CEO Jammu Smart City Limited and JMC Commissioner engaged with Tarika Mahajan Assistant Editor The NEWS NOW.
Q. Tell us something about Jammu Smart City and projects that are underway?
Answer: When it comes to Smart City Mission, the picture of Jammu has transformed as the city has shifted on the modern lines. The Smart City Mission has touched every area and aspect like drains, roads, Information Technology Management System (ITMS) for Traffic, e-buses and much more. The ignored areas like Panama Chowk, Gandhi Nagar, Indira Chowk, areas heritage roads in old city have been made to reach new levels. But the job is not completed yet like down the line critical areas like Residency Road, Tawi River Front will be comprehensively pandered.
Q. Since, digitalization has been spearheaded by J&K Govt and it has reduced the dependency on manpower. Elaborate it in terms of your department.
Answer: Indeed, digitalization has left a positive impact on department. In the current times, people only visit for Capex work to the department. For the work like building permission, water tanker requirement, heath sanitation complaint, birth certificate, people apply online. Transparency and accountability has been ensured with online interface in the department.
Q. Please apprise us about the upcoming Smart City projects.
Answer: In order to boost tourism in Jammu, the project of “Waste-to-Wonder” park is in progress which play a vital part in enthralling the tourists. Besides, the work on Tawi River Front ‘Central Island’ has been completed wherein various tourist-centric activities will be carried out and it will emerge as hub of tourism.
Q. Despite several warnings and anti-polythene drives, the administration has failed to mitigate the its usage. What is your take in this regard?
Answer: Foremost step is to prevent the supplies of polythene from Inter-state Porous Border especially the non-recycling polythene or the single use plastic posing threat of chocked drains. We have imposed challans as of now, will also intensify the operations to mitigate the use of polythene.
Q. Why is a delay in completion of Tawi River Front project?
Answer: Tawi River Front has three key components – Left Bank, Right Bank and Central Island. In January 2025, we wrapped up the Central Island project of Tawi River Front. The work on Left Bank has been completed by 98 percent but in Right Bank there are locals issues and those bottlenecks will be eliminated at the earliest.
