Govt sanctions Rs 192 crore

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 3

The Ministry of Urban Development has sanctioned Rs 192 crore — Rs 2 crore each for 96 cities — under the Smart City Mission. The sanction orders were issued to 38 smart city representatives from 11 states at the regional workshop, which was inaugurated by Minister of Urban Development M Venakaiah Naidu, today. The sanctioned money of Rs 2 crore provided for each city is meant for preparation of smart city plans with the assistance of technical and hand-holding agencies. One city each from Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh are still to be identified for inclusion in the Smart City Mission.

Addressing the workshop attended by 10 northern states and Gujarat, Naidu said: “A smart city is what the citizens want their city to be and the city-level plans should be evolved based on extensive consultations with them.”

The workshop was held to discuss various aspects of preparation of smart city plans and related issues. The participating states and union territories of Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat account for 40 of the 98 smart city candidates, 201 of 482 AMRUT cities and 5 of the 12 HRIDAY cities identified so far.