Take up Smart City works on war footing: Gangula tells officials

Karimnagar: BC Welfare and Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalkar has directed the officials to take up the Smart City works on a war footing and complete them at the earliest.

A high-level meeting was held on the progress of Smart City and Cable Bridge works at the Collectorate meeting hall here on Monday. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that

Karimnagar city was developing day-by-day. When the city was a municipal council only 2.5 lakh people lived but now 4 lakh people live in the city.

40 to 50,000 people from other areas come and go to the city every day and vertical development was happening in the city. As the population was increasing, the roads were being occupied and narrowed causing traffic problems.

The roads were only for vehicles and footpaths were for pedestrians. There were situations to be afraid of going to the tower cirlce area in the traffic and ambulances and fire engines could not go to their destination if there was any unexpected accident, the Minister said.

It was not a good practice to put lakhs of people in trouble for a few doing business on the roads. The small traders should not do business on roads and instead they were setting up integrated markets. Strict measures should be taken to ensure that traders do not encroach on the footpaths set up for pedestrians, Kamalakar told officials.

Only if Karimnagar was a clean city, there was a possibility of big companies coming to the city. The works of the smart city should be completed within a month and the tower circle should beautified, he said. The officers were ordered to complete the cable bridge by December 31.

Earlier, the Minister reviewed the Smart City works being done at Tower Circle with City Mayor Y Sunil Rao, District Collector RV Karnan, Additional Collector Garima Agarwal, Municipal Commissioner Seva Islawat Naik and the map related to Smart City works and roads.