Doon makes it to the Smart City list

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, June 23

Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand, was today picked up for the Centre’s Smart City project.

Making a cut among 30 urban cities, Dehradun was placed at the 13th position after Puducherry which was ranked 12, while Jammu and Srinagar have been placed at the 14th position.

Dehradun had not figured in the last three lists, released by the Union Ministry of Urban Development.

Early in January, the city’s claims were rejected on flimsy grounds of being disaster hit. The then Congress government under Harish Rawat had severely criticised the NDA government for deliberately ignoring the city’s claims.

However, with the BJP government coming to power in the state in March, it was expected that Dehradun’s proposal would finally make the cut.

“No major amendments have been made in the proposal for this round. However, the project proposal was discussed with experts from IIT Roorkee and their views were also sought,” said Minister for Urban Development Madan Kaushik.

The Congress government had initially gone for a green field area development proposal, after its rejection the plan was altered to one of retrofitting in the old areas. During all the stages the proposal was passed at the board meeting of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation. “Despite stiff opposition from my party (BJP), I had lent my weight to the proposal under the Congress regime in the state. I am happy that the proposal has been approved,” said Vinod Chamoli, Mayor of Dehradun.

After launching the 100 Smart Cities project in 2015, the NDA government has so far selected 90 cities for the programme.

The Centre will provide Rs 48,000 crore over the period of five years for the Smart City mission. The matching fund will be contributed by a combination of states and the private sector. Each city will get Rs 100 crore per year.