Surat

After the launch of the assessment framework in February 2019, the draft of the said assessment framework was studied thoroughly by the CEO, Surat Smart City, and accordingly with respect to the letter D.O. No. K-15016/62/2015-SC-I dated 28.03.2019, Environment Engineer, Mr. Jwalant N. Naik was appointed as the Nodal officer from Surat City in order to coordinate with the Ministry.

Attending Cluster Workshop Dated 15.04.2019 at New Delhi

Nodal officer, Surat Smart City attended the cluster workshop organized at Indian Habitat Centre in New Delhi, on 15th April 2019. In the workshop, the Nodal officer understood the assessment framework and questions pertaining to 30 diverse indicators across five different categories; also cleared the doubts in some of the indicators by taking advice from expert members during the Question & Answers session after each technical session.

Preliminary Actions Taken Before Launching of Online Portal

  • Mr. Naik appraised the Municipal Commissioner, Surat, about the CSCAF and the process to fill in the data required. Accordingly, the Municipal Commissioner formulated the core team of below-ranked officials to analyse the indicators and relevant data required for each of them. Also, the work related to the coordination of entire data uploading was given to the Environment Cell, SMC which is also doing the work regarding city-level climate coordination.
    • Dy. Commissioner, SMC and CEO, Surat Smart City Development Limited, Mr. C. Y. Bhatt
    • City Engineer, SMC and General Manager, Surat Smart City Development Limited, Mr. B. I. Dalal
    • Dy. Commissioner, SMC, Mr. N. V. Upadhyay
    • Dy. Commissioner, SMC, Mr. R. J. Pandya
    • Addl. City Engineer, SMC, Mr. K. H. Khatwani
    • Executive Engineer, SMC, Mr. E. H. Pathan
    • Environment Engineer, SMC, Mr. J.N. Naik
  • The Environment Cell was advised to prepare and present a brief presentation in the next scheduled city-level Health & Engineering meeting, for the basic requirements for the assessment framework data collection and separate the data required from different departments so that the city officials and designated officers can get the idea regarding the Assessment Framework.
  • The said presentation was done in the first week of May, and in the said meeting, the Municipal Commissioner directed the entire official staff to support the core team and provide the data through their department or by consulting the sectors relevant to their department in the required time limit for the Assessment Framework.
  • On 9th May 2019, the core team formed again had a detailed discussion on questions pertaining to 30 different indicators from the five categories, and accordingly decided to appoint the Assistant Nodal officer from each department as mentioned below, so that the data can be gathered smoothly.
Department Name of Asst. Nodal Officer Designation Work Allotted
Environment Cell Jwalant Naik Environment Engineer, SMC Nodal Officer CSCAF To overall coordinate with the Ministry and guide the entire core team with the information received from the Ministry for data collection
Environment Cell Abhishek Jain Assistant Engineer, Civil, SMC. To overall coordinate with the entire core team for data collection and uploading the data pertaining to Environment Cell
Light Energy and Efficiency Cell Jinesh Patel Assistant Engineer, Electrical, SMC To provide and upload data pertaining to light and energy-related
Drainage Department Priyesh Magajwala Junior Engineer, Electrical, SMC To provide and upload data pertaining to Fire, Emergency and Disaster-related data
Hydraulic Department Nilesh Patel Executive Assistant, SMC To provide and upload data pertaining to Water Supply Network
Town Development Department Vishnu Jariwala Assistant Engineer, Civil, SMC. To provide and upload data pertaining to Town Development and Green Building
Road, Traffic and BRTS Department Dhaval Gandhi, Trupti Bhuva Assistant Engineer, Civil, SMC. To provide and upload data pertaining to Road Networks, Footpath etc.
Garden Department Paresh Randeria Deputy Engineer, SMC To provide and upload data pertaining to Garden department
Fire and Disaster Management Department Basant Parikh I/C, Fire Officer To provide and upload data pertaining to Fire, Emergency and Disaster related data
  • Dedicated WhatsApp group for the above core team members along with their superior officers were formed and monitoring was done thrice a day by the Nodal Officer, in relation to data gathered and uploaded on the portal by the core team members.

Actions Taken after the Launch of the Online Portal

  • On 1st July 2019, the online portal for data uploading was launched by the Ministry.
  • The next day a meeting was scheduled by the core team, with all the Assistant Nodal officers for guidance and discussion regarding data uploading.
  • All the Assistant Nodal officers were ordered to contact and present their difficulties related to data gathering and uploading and interpretation of the question to the Nodal officer. The Nodal Officer should get the respective information by contacting the sector experts as appointed by the Ministry.
  • All the data uploaded by the Assistant Nodal officers on the online portal was analyzed by the Nodal Officer and every alternate day the status of data uploaded and remaining along with the evidence was submitted in the core group for further guidance and thorough follow up.

Problems Identification and Solutions

  • It was directed to all the Assistant Nodal officers that any doubts or clarification required for any query should be submitted by 18th July as the regional workshop on handholding the cities on the assessment framework related processes was organized by the Ministry, in association with GIZ. Surat chose to attend the workshop on 19th July at Kolkata in which the Nodal officer could gather clarity regarding all the doubts.
  • There was also separate dedicated team for the data translation from the local language to English so that authenticate data could be uploaded on the portal.
  • Every alternate day, the above Nodal officer conducted meetings with two or three Assistant Nodal officers and share the difficulties faced by them for data gathering and uploading with the sector experts of PMU via e-mail or WhatsApp communication for solutions, and accordingly guidance was provided.

Final Review and Uploading

  • On 30th July 2019, before the final submission of all the gathered data uploaded on the online portal, a detailed discussion was done by the core team and accordingly, under the guidance and supervision of the core team, the final submission was done on the morning of 31st July 2019.

Queries Raised by Expert Members and Resubmission

  • After the preliminary assessments of the data uploaded online in the portal by different cities, the Ministry re-opened the online portal for queries/clarification/resubmission of some of the questions.
  • li>Accordingly, a VC was organized by the Ministry on 26th August and guidance was given to the Nodal officer for submitting the data related to queries/concerns raised by the sector experts by 30th August 2019.
  • Core team met to review and discuss the questions on which queries had been raised by PMU experts. Accordingly, a telephonic discussion was also done with different experts related to the doubts, and guidance was provided to all the Assistant Nodal officers and the Nodal officer for gathering and uploading the missing data.
  • After a thorough discussion, the details were uploaded on the online portal before the deadline.