*Vice President along with chief minister Raghubar Das on the occasion of foundation stone laying ceremony for Smart City

Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu today laid the foundation of the Ranchi smart city project.

The Rs 10,500 crore mega project aims to develop modern and green city complex.However,it is yet to get the mandatory environmental clearance without which no work on the ground can start.

More,apart from the smart city project,Naidu laid the foundation of the Jharkhand Urban Planning and Management Institute(Rs 107 crore),an urban civic tower spread over 12,000 sqm(Rs 192 crore) and a convention centre on 25,000 sqm(Rs 392 crore).

The move comes at a time when a number of projects announced by Raghubar Das government during the past nearly 1000 days have not taken off till date.

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*Vice President on dias along with Governor Draupadi Murmu, Chief Minister Raghubar Das and others

These include New Jharkhand Capital Project.The project was launched by ex Home Minister LK Advani in 2002.It is yet to take off.

*A ring road project launched in 2001 is yet to be completed.

*Worse,Jaipal Singh Stadium near Kutchery has turned into a dump yard. Launched in November 2013, the Rs 3.28-crore project proposes to build a food court, a park, playground and a vending zone on the southern side.

*The Town Hall project is in deep water as the land where it is to be implemented is flooded with rain water.The Rs 8-crore modern centre with two food courts, a 400-seat auditorium, underground parking facility and a park, was to come up within two years.It is still tom-tomming.

*Worse,over 100 huts and cowsheds were demolished and around 1,000 people were evicted from the land of Nagababa Khatal near Raj Bhavan in 2011 for a proposed urban haat. The civic body had plans to develop the area on the lines of Delhi's Palika Bazar with an estimate cost Rs 2.5 crore. The project is yet to see the light of day.

*Image showing Vice President being welcomed by girl students

A Rs 12-crore daily market was proposed near Main Road in 2012. Five years later, the RMC is yet to remove encroachment to start the project.

However,as par the Ranchi Smart City plan,execution has to take place in two components-area-based development and pan-city development projects. 

According to sources, 656 acres in the HEC region in the Dhurwa-Jagannathpur area is to become a new city with commercial, residential and office establishments under the area-based development plan.

In any case,Smart City Project Corporation finance officer Pushpa Kumar claimed the execution of the deed with HEC was almost complete.The CEO is expected to start functioning soon. "We shall begin work on a boundary and start erecting pillars at the site till the time we wait for environmental clearance," she said.

Alongside,since several parts of Ranchi continued to suffer from dirt,filth and power cuts and lack of flowing drain water,sewerage system,potholed free roads,none of  nearly two dozen senior citizens www.jharkhandstatenews.com talked to welcomed the Raghubar Das government led Smart City project.

"Instead of cleaning roads,drains and providing 24X 7 power to us,this government is spending crores and crores of rupees to generate dreams.It has disappointed us very badly",cribs Sudhakar Kumar,a retired school teacher echoing the sentiments of many others.   

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