Many old projects repeated in AMC budget

When civic body commissioner Mukesh Kumar, on Friday, announced the Rs 6550-crore budget for 2018-19 fiscal year, there was hardly any smile on the faces of people present at the meeting. Projects, including a three-layer flyover, looked quite far from reality. The 2.6-km-long and 11-metre-high flyover, has been shelved off by the state government.

The six-lane flyover, proposed by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) in 2013, would start from Thaltej to commerce six roads at a cost of Rs 234 crore. However, the ambitious project is yet to see the light of the day, majorly because of the Metro rail project. Although many see many provisions and proposals in the budget, several have said there is nothing new in it.

What's there in the new proposal?

Floating restaurant on Sabarmati Riverfront

The project was cancelled thrice because there were no bidders despite having floated tenders. A 'Letter of Intent' (LOI) has been floated for the project, Kumar said.

Sabarmati Festival

Ahead of state's foundation day last year, Ahmedabad mayor Gautam Shah had announced that starting from May 1 the civic body will hold a Sabarmati Festival during every summer. The festival will have pared by the fire department and several music concerts. The first edition of the festival was held in 2017.

Compound wall

Several ideas were discussed and introduced for the protection of open plots owned by the civic body. There was a proposal to keep a bird-view watch via satellite on the plots. A proposal of wired fencing was made by the road and committee building and approved by the standing committee. Also, a similar process was completed for the compound walls. Kumar had promised to secure Ahmedabad by installing more CCTV cameras.

Biomining of Pirana

Proposed several times, but nothing has been done about the project. Despite four companies showing interest the work in February 2017, the project could not take off.