New Delhi: Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, Naya Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Rajkot in Gujarat figured in the new list of 30 cities that will be developed under the Centre’s Smart City Mission.
The latest announcement takes to 90 the number of cities selected for part financing of projects by the Centre under the scheme. Thiruvananthapuram took the first slot, followed Naya Raipur, Rajkot, Andhra Pradesh capital Amaravati, and Bihar capital Patna.
Announcing the new list at an event here, Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said that 45 cities contested for the 40 available slots but only 30 were selected. Four cities in Tamil Nadu — Tiruppur, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Tiruchirappalli, and three in Uttar Pradesh — Jhansi, Allahabad and Aligarh — also made it to the list.
An investment of Rs 57,393 crore has been proposed for the development of these 30 cities. Of the planned expenditure, Rs 46,879 crore will be for core infrastructure and Rs 10,514 crore for technology-based solutions. With this, the total investment approved under the smart city plans of total 90 cities has gone up to Rs 1,91,155 crore, Mr Naidu said.
The minister said that 20 more cities will contest for the remaining 10 slots. These included Biharsharif (Bihar); Navimumbai, Greater Mumbai and Amaravati (Maharashtra); Bidhannagar, Durgapur and Haldia (West Bengal); and Meerut, Rai Bareilly, Ghaziabad, Saharanpur and Rampur (Uttar Pradesh).
Of the 30 cities announced on Friday, 26 have proposed affordable housing projects that benefit the urban poor, 26 cities will take up school and hospital projects, 29 will take up redesign and redevelopment of roads.
All 30 cities will put in place integrated command and control centres that enable coordination among various agencies for better service delivery and effective management of scarce resources such as water and power, Mr Naidu said.
Referring to reports that maximum funds are being allocated to a small part of a city areas under the plan, Mr Naidu said the citizens and city governments proposed the projects for fixing the infrastructure deficit in their respective cities.
“Nowhere in the world a city has been made smart overnight in one go,” he said.
