Hyderabad: The Central Government on Friday announced another list of 30 cities for development as smart cities taking the total cities picked up so far to 90 under Smart City Mission launched on June 25, 2015.
They include Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh and Karimnagar of Telangana State.
Announcing the new batch of smart cities at a National Workshop on Urban Transformation today, Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu said that 45 cities contested for 40 available smart city slots but only 30 were selected to ensure feasible and workable plans that match the aspirations of the citizens as directed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while launching the mission.
Venkaiah Naidu informed that the 30 cities announced today proposed a total investment of Rs.57,393 cr under respective smart city plans.
This includes Rs.46,879 cr for ensuring core infrastructure in the areas identified by citizens for area based development and Rs.10,514 cr for technology based solutions for improving governance , service delivery and utilization of infrastructure.
With this the total investment approved under the smart city plans of 90 cities has gone up to Rs.1,91,155 cr.
The Union Minister said that 20 cities will be contesting for the remaining 10 slots under smart city mission. These are; Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Biharsharif (Bihar), Diu (Daman & Diu), Silvassa (Dadra and Nager Haveli), Kavaratti (Lakshadweep), Navimumbai, Greater Mumbai and Amaravati (Maharashtra), Imphal (Manipur), Shillong (Meghalaya), Dindigul and Erode(Tamil Nadu), Bidhannagar, Durgapur and Haldia (West Bengal), Meerut,Rai Bareilly, Ghaziabad, Sharanpur and Rampur (UP).
Venkaiah Naidu said selection of cities for smart city development is running ahead of schedule and the remaining cities would submit revised smart city plans for filling up the vacant slots. (INN)