New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s smart cities project has more takers than any of his other pet plans. More than 1.5 million people have suggested specific plans and designs for building 100 smart cities in the next five years.
The vast response has taken the smart cities plan to the next level as 16 per cent weightage points are given to proposals with maximum suggestions for specific proposals.
As per data compiled by the nodal urban development ministry, Bhopal has topped the list of proposed smart cities with 1,14, 529 suggestions on the modalities, design, theme and comments for redeveloping the ancient city, named by Raja Bhoj, the 11th century Parmara king.
Madhya Pradesh’s capital is regarded as unique with a combination of natural lakes, bustling market places, teeming industrial areas and aristocratic edifices of a city rebuilt by an Afghan soldier, Dost Mohammed.
As a point of comparison, the prime minister’s radio talk, Mann ki Baat has attracted, on an average, over 60,000 suggestions each month. On net neutrality, the government had received 72,000 responses during July–August this year.
From basic infrastructure, services and facilities to community issues, proposals have been coming in from all parts of the country for the 100 smart cities project. Indore, Allahabad, Haldia, Jhansi, Udaipur, Aligarh, Gwalior, Sahranpur and Jabalpur are among the list of top ten cities where citizens have come up with suggestions for making them ‘smart in letter and spirit’.
Other cities to figure in the list of top 20 include Biharsharif in Bihar, Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Oulgaret in Puducherry, Tirupur and Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, Raipur and Bilaspur in Madhya Pradesh, the prime minister’s constituency Varanasi and Faridabad in Haryana.
Suggestions ranged from 11,000 to 107,000 for each of these cities. Most of them were made on the government’s portal www.mygov.in while some have written lengthy suggestions in physical format as well.
Officials handling the portal maintain that suggestions for smart cities plans was ‘huge and unprecedented’ as the sheer numbers have surpassed expectations. Launching the mission in June this year, Modi had emphasised the need for developing smart cities with grassroot participation.
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