Smart City project: Citizen Perception Survey underway

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Dec 7: To en-courage and enhance participation of citizens in city planning policy under Smart City Scheme, a Citizen Perception Survey is on in the State since November 9.
The Citizen Perception Survey (CPS) is a part of the Ease of Living Index seeking to directly capture the perception of citizens with respect to the quality of life in their cities.
The survey will help Government administrations understand the opinion of citizens and help improve service delivery and governance of cities. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has been conducting the survey every year since 2019.
The Imphal Smart City Mission has been orchestrating the survey in the State. However, the survey was halted in 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Based on the data collected, the Ease of Living Index smart city ranking is prepared by studying the suggestions and views collected in the survey from citizens, departments, institutions and all stakeholders.
In 2019, Imphal smart city was ranked 91 out of 111 smart cities across India. In 2020, Imphal ranked 50th.
Speaking to media persons at the City Convention Centre today, MAHUD (Municipal Administration, Housing and Urban Development) Commissioner M Joy said that the Citizen Perception Survey (Ease of Living Citizen Perception Survey) asks 17 simple questions to collect views and suggestions from the citizens.
To take part in the survey, citizens have to visit the website https://eol2022.org.
The Commissioner further stated that the media is one of the most important components of urban awareness for it is media which would disseminate all the news and information of the survey to the citizens for their active participation.
Imphal Smart City Limited Chief Executive  Officer Th Harikumar said that the planning and projects in the smart city are guided by the views and suggestions collected from the citizens.
After Imphal became a smart city, traffic lighting systems have been installed and improved. Further, to attend to the public emergencies, public call systems have been installed at 10 places.
App based bicycle sharing systems have been installed. This has become popular among the people and the authorities have received good feedback, he said.
On future plans of the smart city, he said people-friendly streets dubbed ‘Street for People’ are in the pipeline for construction. For this, two roads have been identified. The road between BT Park and Johnstone School and the Kangla Eastern Gate-Checkon-Ananda Singh  Higher Secondary School stretch will be replaced by these people-friendly streets, he said adding preparations have been completed for these projects.
The 2nd phase of the project will cover the Mall Road leading to Khoyathong from Khwairamband Bazar and the road on the eastern bank of Kangla leading to Minuthong.
The projects are slated to be completed by 2023. However, the continuation and completion of the projects depend on the feedback, demand and views of the citizens, he said.
To solve the traffic and parking problems inside the city, two policies are being considered. Steps are being taken up to set up mini scale rotary parking at places near Ima Keithel, Nagamapal, Sanjenthong and Secured Building.
If these prove successful, this type of parking system will be installed at other places, he said.
As a large-scale solution, multi-level parking structures will be set up near Kangla Park, Old Power House and Thangal Bazar area. Works are also on to convert the ground floor of the Ima Keithel-II as parking space, he added.