Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Lochan Sehra proposed a solar rooftop incentive policy and incentives for the use of electric vehicles in the draft report for 2022-23, which was tabled on Wednesday, in an effort to promote the use of electric vehicles and renewable energy.
The budget, which was presented during election season, proposed no increases in property taxes, water and conservation taxes, or vehicle taxes.
The commissioner has presented a draught budget of Rs 8,111 crore, an increase of Rs 636 crore from the previous year.
In the draught budget, it is proposed that 300 locations for electric vehicle charging stations be identified, as well as a separate budget for EV charging infrastructure.
“To create an EV charging infrastructure, AMC will provide land at a token rate of Rs 1 per square metre per month along with exemption from town planning and any other development costs. Also, the land used as charging station will be exempted from property tax for three years,” the commissioner announced during a virtual presentation of his draft budget Wednesday.
Once installed, these EV charging stations will be GIS mapped, and the list will be uploaded to the AMC website and app, where it will be updated on a regular basis.
In addition to an existing operational fleet of 200 EV buses, another 100 EV AC buses have been proposed for urban mobility.
Furthermore, in addition to the existing 60 e-rickshaws on 10 routes, another 600 have been proposed on 100 routes for last-mile connectivity.
While under the solar rooftop incentive scheme, a 10 per cent rebate in property tax has been proposed to owners of plotted housing schemes from the time of implementation of this scheme from April 1,2022.
“For group housing societies, a competition has been proposed where the society has installed rooftop solar along with rainwater harvesting and segregation of wet and dry waste. In each ward, first winner will be awarded Rs 3 lakh, second Rs 2 and third Rs 1 lakh,” Sehra said.
Further, stressing on ‘Smart City’ project, Sehra said, “Being the last year for Smart Cities Mission, AMC aims to complete ongoing projects as well as proposes new ones.”
The Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner has proposed an allocation of Rs 53 crore for the year 2022-23, more than doubling the allocation for the ‘Smart City’ project in his budget report, up from Rs 25 crore in the year 2021-22.
In addition to ongoing projects, new projects such as a ‘Youth Town Plaza’ under the ‘Eat Smart’ project have been proposed for the city as part of the Smart City project.
This Youth Town Plaza, which will be built in the North West zone, is expected to have smart parking, smart lights with solar panels, smart Variable Message Display (VMD), free wi-fi, CCTV cameras, an EV charging station, and hygienic food options where popular food chains and others will be offered AMC land at affordable rates.
Also, creative activity and game zone for children too has been proposed. Ahmedabad also plans to have wind power plant under Smart City project.
To tackle the issue of encroachment on public land including open plots, the AMC plans to adopt an automated land encroachment monitoring and prevention system using geo fencing at an estimated cost of Rs 16 crore.
This will have a cameras installed pillar inside the plot which will be operational through a mobile SIM card and generate automatic sensor to the control centre and send an alert to the ward estate inspector concerned.
Under the integrated command and control centre (ICCC), LED Variable Message Display will be installed at 26 out of 126 strategic locations by March 2022.