Chandigarh aims to be Smart City, but website devoid of smartness

The lack of transparency is evident when the website is compared with those of Indore and Jaipur, which are among the top 10 smart cities in India. While Jaipur and Indore’s websites both provide a directory of phone numbers for important company staff, including the CEO, CSCL only provides an office landline number for contact.

With the central government extending the deadline for implementation of remaining projects to March 2025 as of July 6, 2024, the list of completed projects now outnumbers ongoing projects nationwide. However, the CSCL website has no tab listing their completed projects, a stark contrast from smart city websites of Indore and Jaipur. Both cities’ smart city pages have separate tabs for completed and proposed projects, presented in tabular forms which are easy to understand and accessible.

Out of a total of 98 projects, only 29 are listed under latest and ongoing projects on the CSCL website, of which seven links are blank. For the ongoing projects with working links, project components are adequately explained and the cost of each is mentioned. Yet there are instances of contradictory information being displayed, such as under the 24×7 water supply pilot project in Manimajra. The date of completion is mentioned as June 2023, but the project status shows ‘under implementation’. project seems to contradict the brief on upgradation of the existing sewage treatment plant as well, which mentions increasing pressure on water supply as a result of limited availability.

Some ongoing projects mention intended durations for implementing projects while others do not. The existing information presented in a haphazard manner. For projects whose status shows ‘under implementation’, no start dates are mentioned. As an organisation that aims to implement information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives in the city, facts regarding its projects should be made clearer and more accessible, which will indeed be a smarter step to make Chandigarh smart for its people.