Pune makes it to list of smart cities without PCMC

Pune was declared as a smart city nominee by the Union Government on Thursday without the inclusion of Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, a leading daily reported. 

While the state government had justified the clubbing of Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Pune Municipal Coprporation (PMC) for the smart city project as a way of serving the similar issues faced by both areas, the Union government has not taken that as reason enough.

Several development projects like 24X7 water supply, wi-fi service, sewage treatment plants and expansion of the Bus Rapid Transport System corridors, that are part of the smart city project will not be achieved at PCMC. The NCP which governs the region is miffed by this exclusion and has said that this is a political game played by BJP, the daily reported.

Although, PCMC has been growing steadily with several industries being set up at Chakan and Talegaon, there were other development projects that they had wanted to work on, such as 24x7 water supply for 60% of the city and replacing all sodium vapour lamps with LED lamps to save power. They had even wanted to have e-learning projects for municipal schools.

Pimpri-Chinchwad had received the "best performing city" under JNNURM and is hopeful that other projects that it has started can still be taken up by the Centre.