Wi-Fi hotspots, soccer academy, smart clasrooms in NDMC Budget

A world-class football academy, 16 Wi-Fi hotspots, LED lights, over 1 MW solar power generation, waste-to-energy units, tech-enabled classrooms and women school bus drivers are some of the proposals in the NDMC Budget for 2015-16 that was presented on Wednesday.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also gave his suggestions for some amendments in the Budget document in the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) meeting during which it was also decided not to increase property tax rates. 

NDMC Chairman Jalaj Shrivastava said the council will also offer 50 per cent cut in power tariffs up to consumption of 400 units and free 20,000 litre monthly water to residents in its area on the lines of the announcement made by the Delhi government.

“We are in talks with the Delhi government to claim the subsidy of around Rs 22.5 crore for the power and water concessions,” said Shrivastava, reaffirming the council’s resolve to move towards making its area a “Smart City”.

Shrivastava presented a surplus Budget of Rs 27.20 crore for financial year 2015-16. The total receipts of Rs 3,153.22 crore have been projected against the total estimated expenditure of Rs 3,126.02 crore during the period.

In the next financial year, the NDMC plans to replace 18,500 streetlight poles with LED lights fitted with CCTV cameras and creation of Wi-Fi access points, before gradually moving towards free Wi-Fi in its entire jurisdiction.

The civic agency plans to build a chain of waste-to-energy (WTE) plants for 100 per cent recycling waste. It has also set eyes on generation of 4 MW solar power from roof tops of its schools and offices.

As part of its ‘Urja project’ aimed at empowering women, it also announced that a ‘Shakti cab’ service would be launched to cater to female passengers. As a pilot project, women commercial drivers/pass outs from NDMC Women Technical Institute (WTI) would be plying these cabs, apart from the new three school buses that the civic agency plans to run in the next financial year.

A Fédération Internationale de Football Association-class football academy will be build at Shera Maidan behind NDMC Senior Secondary School, Mandir Marg, with artificial grass.
The civic agency also has plans on setting up of technology-enabled classrooms in five NDMC schools and build a technical institute for boys for job-oriented skill development.