In a major urban development update in the nation,  "RAAHI"(Rejuvenation of Auto-rickshaws in Amritsar through Holistic Intervention) a project under Amritsar Smart City intended to improve public transport and commutation and reduce pollution in the city has ranked second in the country for successful completion of maturation phase of the Project. Municipal Commissioner and CEO Amritsar Smart City Malwinder Singh Jaggi has recently been felicitated by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Joint Secretary and Mission Director of Smart City Mission, Kunal Kumar during a special program held in Delhi.

RAAHI is part of the CITIIS (city investments to innovate, integrate and sustain) Program which is run by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, French Development Agency (AFD), European Union, and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). The project was nominated from amongst 67 other projects in 37 cities across the country in 2019. About 12 cities were selected across the country under the CITIIS Program, out of which Chennai stood first, Amritsar second and Surat third in successfully completing the maturation phase.

On this occasion, the CEOs of Smart Cities of performing cities have been honored in a special program held in Delhi. Under the RAAHI project, old diesel autos running in the city will be replaced with e-autos, for which financial subsidies will be provided to auto-drivers as well as loans at minimal interest rates. Along with this, charging stations would also be installed in the city to charge the e-vehicles. Giving more details about this, Jaggi said, "Amritsar is the first city in the country where e-autos would be made a part of the public transport system on such a large scale, for which  financial subsidies to the drivers under the Smart City Mission besides loans will also be provided to them at affordable rates." 

He further added that e-auto is the future of public transport, due to which not only the level of air pollution would be reduced, but this would also reduce noise pollution. This will also make the city environment cleaner and the earnings of rickshaw drivers from e-autos will also increase, as rising oil prices have increased the operational cost of driving diesel autos to more than Rs 4 per km, while e-autos operational cost is only 0.68 paise per km. He said that very soon the project will be formally started.