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A 1,000 cameras to monitor traffic, ensuring traffic discipline in commuters, real-time tracking of CTU buses, electric buses, first-of-its-kind bird park with exotic species of birds… Chandigarh, the City Beautiful, has changed for the better this year. Let us take a look at some of these events from the city.
1,000 cameras to catch violations
The Integrated Command Control Centre which was inaugurated this year acts as the brain of the city with an on-premise data center hosting relevant solutions for all following field systems and data analytic tools for informative decision making, better disaster management and smarter governance. The project cost Rs 295 crore. The camera surveillance aims not just to make roads safer but gets in real time to reduce incidents of theft or other crime incidents.
UT’s biggest slum razed, 65 acres reclaimed
In a move towards slum free Chandigarh, this year saw the largest colony being razed. On May 1, the drive was conducted and 65 acres of land worth Rs 2000 crore was reclaimed when Chandigarh’s oldest and biggest slum colony, colony number 4, was razed. While the forest department plans to make an urban park at the said land here, the estate office’s land will be used as per the Master Plan which suggests industrial and mix land use. The officials, amid a heavy police presence of 2,000 personnel, pulled down 2,500 illegal structures.
Electric vehicle policy rolled out
In September, Chandigarh rolled out the ambitious Electric Vehicle Policy. Declaring itself a model EV city, the Chandigarh administration while notifying the EV policy, stated that within two years from now, they will entirely stop registrations of petrol-based two-wheelers and personal fuel-based cars will be reduced to 50 per cent after four years from now. While setting targets for each e-vehicle category every year, the Chandigarh administration also notified that all those buying electric vehicles from now won’t just be getting a subsidy upto Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 lakh on their electric vehicle but even the road tax here would be waived off for them during this policy period.
According to the five year policy, it was also specified that minimum achievable targets have been set for each year and a specific set of percentage would be mandatory for e-vehicles to be registered. For example, in 2022, 35 per cent is the achievable target for two-wheeler EV vehicles to be registered, which means that when 65 per cent of the fuel-based two wheeler registrations are complete, no further registrations of fuel-based two-wheelers would take place. The owner of the two-wheeler will have to get it registered elsewhere but not in Chandigarh. The total vehicle target of the particular category would be the total number of vehicles registered in that category last year.
Electric buses
Chandigarh is now sees a fleet of 80 electric buses plying on the roads. This year, Chandigarh added another fleet of 40 intra-city electric buses to the existing 40 in the city. An agreement was signed with Volvo Eicher in February 2022. The second lot of 40 buses will cover routes from New Maloya Colony to Ram Darbar and Manimajra, ISBT 43 to Mani Majra and Behlana, Maloya to Mansa Devi. The Department of Heavy Industries, under Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, had sanctioned 80 electric buses for Chandigarh under phase-II of the FAME India scheme. The 40 buses have been operating from November 2021. According to the data with The Indian Express, as many as 50 lakh passengers have travelled on electric buses that were introduced in Chandigarh last year, thereby leading to 4.28 lakh litres of diesel being saved.
On a daily basis, approximately 15,500 passengers in Chandigarh travel in the mini electric buses that were flagged off in September last year. The transport department has plans to replace all diesel buses in Tricity with electric ones by 2027-2028. The data showed that these buses together have logged around 21.50 lakh km and have saved 4.28 lakh litres of diesel till date.
Passenger info display screens
Passenger information display screens have been installed at both bus terminals at ISBT Sectors 17 and 43, at the railway station and at 37 bus queue shelters at different locations. Commuters can now live-track buses on en route, expected time of arrival/departure at terminals, bus queue shelters, etc. In-bus CCTV cameras to improve the security of commuters and cashless travel through smart cards (personalised and anonymous) along with facility of online recharge has also been introduced. The transport department also gets to know the number of buses scheduled out of total buses in depot, number of buses en route/idle, number of routes/trips in operation, bus and crew allocation, schedule adherence, bus bunching, timely bus maintenance monitoring – depot management system, real time cash collection, reduction of cash handling, revenue leakage by usage of smart cards through the system. Chandigarh has a total of 597 Chandigarh buses. Of these, 403 buses operate on Tricity routes. Forty five of the 403 buses on Tricity routes are e-buses.
Air Force heritage centre
The Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee has already given a final go-ahead to the Indian Air Force heritage centre which is to come up at the government press building, Sector 18, Chandigarh. In June, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the UT administration and the Indian Air Force.
This centre will have simulators, decommissioned aircrafts, aero engines, and other IAF artefacts. The centre will include virtual reality and AI technology. Aiming to motivate the youth to join the Armed forces, it was said that this centre will highlight the crucial role of the Air Force in various wars and assistance rendered by the IAF for civil air operations.
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