Hyderabad: The Chief Minister had written to Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu while introducing a ‘Smart Metro’ concept with cities like Hyderabad, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru. This segment should be allocated Rs 1,000 crore annually.
Mr Rao brought to the notice of Mr Naidu that Hyderabad municipality’s budget was around Rs 5,500 crore per year and Rs 100 crore to the city, under the Smart City category, was meagre. He wanted Karimnagar to be included so that the smart city amount could be utilised effectively for it.
“These six metro cities are by itself a mini-India, with vibrant and diverse populations and bearing rich and proud traditions. They are the captains of urbanisation movement and given their sheer size and complexity, the challenges they face are of a different order. Therefore, to lump them together with the other cities under the Smart Cities mission is to do them injustice. They have special needs and it is a fact that their budgetary requirements are far larger. Rs 100 crore might make a world of difference to a small town but is simply a blip for a metropolis such as Mumbai and Hyderabad,” Mr Rao had written.
