Bengaluru’s Smart City ranking improves
- Bengaluru’s ranking under Smart City has also seen an improvement from 74 to 30. However, the jump in ranking is only for floating tenders and issuing work orders. Actual work on the project is yet to begin.
- Senior civic officials conceded that work is not likely to be taken up any time soon.
- Bengaluru was the last city to be chosen from Karnataka for the Smart City project. The cities from Karnataka that have been chosen for the project are Belagavi, Davangere, Hubballi, Mangaluru, Shivamogga, Tumakuru and Bengaluru.
- The ranking, is given based on the number of projects for which tenders have been floated and the number of work orders issued for the project implementation.
- A Special Purpose Vehicle was created.
- The BBMP had already floated tenders for taking up TenderSURE work on 20 roads at a cost of Rs. 255 crore, and work orders have been issued for the same. The civic body has also issued the work orders for converting all street lights into LED lights under a public-private partnership project at a cost of Rs. 800 crore.
- Recently, the BBMP had floated a tender to take up TenderSURE work on 16 select roads, apart from revamping of K.R. Market, a heritage structure. The two tenders are worth around Rs. 250 crore.
Airavata taxi scheme for SC/ST youth flagged off
- Social Welfare Minister Priyank Kharge flagged off the Airavata self-employment scheme for SC/ST youth in the State.
- Under the scheme, the department will provide financial assistance of Rs. 5 lakh to selected beneficiaries from the SC/ST community to buy vehicles and run them as taxis.
- It has partnered with taxi aggregator Uber, which will provide training. In the first phase, 70 beneficiaries received sanction letters
Airavata Taxi Scheme
- Targeted especially at the young men and women of SC/ST communities, the scheme will provide training, mentoring, financial assistance and industry partnerships. Overall, the government is looking to invest over Rs. 225 crore in the scheme, which will ensure job creation and economic development.
- Through the Airavata scheme, the Karnataka government aims to foster partnerships with potential service providers and cab aggregators to provide opportunities to unemployed SC/ST youth to take up ownership of cabs and taxis.
- Uber will be assisting the Karnataka Government in identifying eligible candidates from the SC/ST community from Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru and Hubballi cities in Karnataka, especially in semi-urban areas, and encourage them to take advantage of this scheme.
- Uber will also train beneficiaries, encourage them to register as Driver Partners on the Uber App, and thereby, provide access to entrepreneurial opportunities and viable earnings. Beneficiaries will also be provided with the necessary assistance to avail any additional loans from financial institutions.
Mysuru gets 5-star rating
- Mysuru is among only three cities which qualified for a 5-star rating under a new garbage-free certification protocol, which was introduced under the Swachh Survekshan 2019.
- The other cities are Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh.
- The validity of the rating is for 1 year.
Mysuru clinches 3rd rank, Bengaluru is 194th
- Mysuru is the lone Karnataka town to figure in top 10 clean cities in the Swachh Survekshan 2019 results announced by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs on Wednesday. Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, Ujjain and Dewas, and Guj
- Mysuru has dramatically moved up from 8th rank in 2018 to the third this year. Mangaluru is at 165th position.
- Bengaluru, which slipped from 7th rank in 2015 to 216th three years later, has marginally improved its performance to be at 194.
- The city’s ranking was pushed down by delayed open defecation-free certification and lack of effective waste-management measures.As many as 458 cities with over 10-lakh population were surveyed on a range of parameters. In state-wise rankings, Karnataka stood at the 14th place.
