Hyderabad: Karimnagar in Telangana state and Amaravati in AP figure in the new list of 30 smart cities announced on Friday for development under the Central government’s Smart City Mission.
Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu announced the new list of smart cities at an event held in Delhi. Under the Smart City Mission, the Centre provides Rs 500 crore to each city over a period of five years for implementing various projects.
Meanwhile, Telangana state has bagged 6th rank in the country for achieving the reforms milestone mandated for the financial year 2016-17 as per the guidelines of AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation).
Mr Venkaiah Naidu has sanctioned Rs 19.93 crore and handed over the letter sanctioning the amount to municipal administration director T.K. Sreedevi.
Mr Venkaiah Naidu said that 45 cities contested for the 40 smart city slots but only 30 were selected. He said an investment of Rs 57,393 crore has been proposed for the development of these 30 cities. Of this, Rs 46,879 crore will be for core infrastructure and Rs 10,514 crore for technology-based solutions. Twenty more cities will be contesting for the remaining 10 slots under the smart city mission.
Of the 30 smart cities announced on Friday, 26 have proposed affordable housing projects that benefit the urban poor. While 26 cities will be taking up school and hospital projects, 29 will be taking up redesign and redevelopment of roads.
The Union minister said that these 30 cities will put in place integrated command and control centres that enable coordination among various agencies for better service delivery and effective management of scarce resources such as water and power. The ministry has distributed Rs 500 crore among various states to carry out reforms in the urban sector.
The TS government has received Rs 19.93 crore. The Union minister said for the next three years, incentive funds of Rs 10,000 crore have been approved for recognising the efforts by states in urban transformation.
