As per the Guidelines of Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, the preparation of Smart City Proposal should have been citizen centric. Hence, to define Jalandhar City’s vision, goals and prioritising the projects for smart city proposal (SCP), Vision document has been prepared by the civic body after having public interaction through various surveys by hiring consultants for the project.
Round-I (year 2015), citizen and stakeholders from each sector were engaged via tools like workshop, social media, MyGov, Facebook, Youtube/Twitter, seminars, rallies, road -shows, ward level consultation and their feedback were recorded.
ROUND 2 (Year 2016): To expand outreach, apart from the above mentioned tools, MCJ also launched a Smart city Jalandhar website to share earlier SCP (2015) and receive feedbacks on various priority areas concerned. The initiative helped in connecting with more than 3.5 lakh citizens and receiving inputs from 5.03 lakhs (>55% of the city’s population). Consultations with women & youth groups were held in 21 women/co-ed educational institutions. Senior citizens/Specially-abled were consulted by establishing 50 kiosks in public gardens/spaces. To make Smart City Brand for Jalandhar, MCJ has finalized City logo amongst 93 entries received through competition. In line with city vision, the logo signifies the spirit of Jalandhar as Sports Hub.
Thus, based on above mentioned strategy a detailed Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) analysis was done to set the Jalandhar City’s vision, goals and prioritising the projects for smart city proposal (SCP) through citizen consultation & interaction. Ultimately, the vision statement has been emerged as follows.
| The City’s Vision is “Healthy & Productive Jalandhar: The leading sports & manufacturing hub in Asia”. |
This vision statement seeks to convey means of overcoming its challenges and key messages about what Jalandhar can be as per aspirations of citizens, its opportunities:
Healthy, Active City:
The vision promotes developing sports and recreation facilities in the city, interactive public spaces and recreation areas/ parks. This will help to create a mixed use, compact, walkable community and will provide employment and other opportunities for all local people whilst promoting a healthy lifestyle. Strong community links will be developed with all members of society including outreach programmes engaging with youth to help control substance abuse in the city.
Sports City:
Jalandhar is home to several top sports professionals, and is one of the biggest hubs for the manufacture of sports goods. It has its own sports college and has a unique opportunity to build upon over 63 acres of land for redevelopment at Burlton Park for sports training, performing and other uses. Building on this, Jalandhar will be transformed into a healthy, sports city with world class rehabilitation, training and events venues that provide facilities for professional sports persons. There are many nursing homes in the city and the use of these for general health as well as world class sports rehabilitation centers will be promoted.
Entrepreneurial and Productive City:
Building upon the Punjabi tradition of trade and commerce, the new smart city will help to foster a culture of entrepreneurship amongst its residents. Incubator units will be created for technology and other start-up businesses leading to higher skilled job creation in the local economy. The IT sector will help to create a bridge between the latest technological advancements and existing industry. Jalandhar will become prosperous by ensuring that its residents can access appropriate education, training and skills to be a part of and benefit from the city’s economy.
Manufacturing based Economy: Manufacturing is a key sector within the local economy. Up-skill and increase the existing manufacturing base, implement advanced production techniques to build expertise these sectors. By diversifying its manufacturing base, combined with high levels of entrepreneurship, a more resilient economy will emerge.
Sustainable & Livable City:
For Jalandhar to become Asia’s leading sports and manufacturing hub, it will have to invest in upgrading its physical infrastructure to make it smart and resilient, measures that will improve the city’s environment and make it more sustainable. Key to this is not only the physical infrastructure which allows the city to run smoothly but also the social infrastructure which supports the residents of the city through the provision of inclusive housing, transport (to access jobs etc) recreational areas, tree plantation, public spaces and traffic management whilst promoting mixed use, compact
