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Ladakh Smart Cities: The Journey Begins

The Smart Cities Mission was launched on 25 June 2015 by the Hon’ble Prime Minister is redefining the contours of urban development in India. 100 Cities have been selected in different rounds to be the torchbearers for this transformative journey. Under the Smart Cities Mission, every State and UT was tasked to develop atleast one city as smart city.

In pursuance to the provision of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the State of Jammu and Kashmir was divided into Union territory (UT) of Jammu & Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh. The creation of new UTs lead to UT of Ladakh without any smart city.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs considering the significance of the UT of Ladakh and in sync with vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister expressed its support to the Government of the Union Territory of Ladakh in creating future-ready approach to Urbanisation. The MoHUA further expressed its focused interest in developing Leh and Kargil on the Smart City principles.

Kargil Smart City

Kargil’s landscape is mountainous, rugged, and high, the minimum elevation being some 8,000 feet (2,440 metres). The climate is cold and dry, with scanty precipitation that falls mainly as snow in winter. The town of Kargil lies in the Zaskar Range of the Himalayas and sits on the highly militarized line of control. The name Kargil is derived from two words ‘Khar’ and ‘rKil’. Khar means castle and rKil means centre thus a place between castles as the place lay between many kingdoms.

The Kargil Municipal Council area has population of 16,338 (2011 census) which shows an average growth rate of 53.31 % during decadal year 2001-11. Kargil Planning Area had a population of 28,298 which constitute 57.74 % of urban population and 42.26 % of rural population.

The existing physical growth pattern of the town is in the north and south direction majorly along the Shilikchey-Baroo Road. The major residential developments are concentrated in Shilikchey, Goma Kargil, Poyen, Lankoor & Chanchik. The administrative buildings and offices are in Baroo area.