Municipal Commissioner of Ahmedabad on city’s transformation plans

Amedabad: Municipal Commissioner of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Shri Vijay Nehra today interacted with youths at
Young Thinkers Conclave here organized by the British High Commission. Following are the highlights of his interaction.

About technology interventions

Automatic number plate recognition system and Automatic Red Light Violation system are in place in the city and in last two months, 72,000 purely computerized e-chalans are generated which is first in the country. AMC through Vahan software identify the owner of the vehicle. However if people don’t pay those fines, then the entire system – the loop will not get close. Technology can improve and expedite the system but it can not be substitute for improved citizen.

About public transport

Presently there are 40 lakh vehicles in the city. More than 2 lakh are auto rickshaws. Everybody wants to buy a two-wheeler and later a four-wheeler. We want mixture of non-motorized transport and improvement in quality of public transport. Bigger focus in short term for us is improved quality of public transport. Within six months, Ahmedabad will be owning biggest fleet of electric buses. There’s not a single electric bus in the city as of now. We have placed order for 50 electric buses. Three days ago we sent proposal to Centre for another 300 electric vehicles for city. In early part of the year, Metro train operation will begin. We have air conditioned BRTS. AMTS will also have AC buses. Automatic Intelligent Traffic Management System is under implementation. In next two to three months, vehicle location, fare collection, smart card system will be in place.

About cleanliness

I have gone to Europe and America. Roads are no where swept daily, road should be cleaned once a week or once a month, because garbage neither drop from sky nor come out of earth. Every single piece of garbage and litter that we see is the result of some human intervention. In this war of 13000 vs 67 lakh, if somebody throw garbage in my home I will fight, but we still don’t have same mindset when it comes to our city and our streets. So we need to go beyond present state and should stop littering and slap fine in roko and toko style. Fine amount in last one month has been Rs 1 crore. We intend to ensure Ahmedabad city among country’s top ten cleanest cities in next three months and the status of cleanest city of India in next one year. We are starting a big campaign to educate the citizens about source segregation of wast from upcoming 2nd October and planning communication strategy and incentives, combined with material recovery facilities, 8 transfer station and decentralized waste management system.