Varanasi Smart City, a city of cultural and spiritual beliefs situated on the banks of River Ganga, aims to make the city a great place to live while showcasing its cultural heritage. Dr D Vasudevan, Chief General Manager, shares more. Pace of progress Varanasi Smart City initiatives are in a very good state. We are in the advanced stages of implementation. Luckily, the city is No. 1 in the state and we are completing all the projects within the targets set by the Smart City Mission. Impact of the pandemic The pandemic has been a disruption all over the world. Of course, it did delay some of our projects. Butwe were able to use this opportunity to design and plan the remaining work and complete the projects well in time. Upcoming tenders and projects We have finished most of our projects. One big-ticket project is the redevelopment of the Sigra stadium Phase 2 and Phase 3. Though it is beyond the scope of the Smart City Mission, these phaseshave been given to Varanasi Smart City as additional work. Other than that, we have some small ICT interventions that will lead to the summarisation of the efforts by the city through stable pay and revenue earning mechanisms. Dream project A dream project would be introducing a unified tourist pass system. The city is visited by 150,000 tourists each day; on festival days, it goes up to 500,000. This is a large number of people visiting the Kashi Vishwanath Temple and tourist spots in the city. So, we are trying to come up with a single pass system so tourists don’t have to wait in queues. We have already floated tenders for it. This will be a first of its kind in the country. Biggest achievement and challenge in the Smart Cities Mission The Smart Cities Mission is a very good initiative. I don’t think the cities have achieved all that they wanted but it has made a beginning. It would become an inspiration and a role model for smaller cities. The development of smart cities should not be stopped. More cities should adopt the model as we have learnt a lot of things from experience. Empirical evidence should be used to make good use of investments in other cities.