Jammu, Srinagar finally made it to the 'Smart Cities' list

Jammu: The twin capitals of Jammu and Kashmir have made it to the smart cities’ list.

The announcement was made as the government decided the stage-II (round three) of the smart city competition today.

The Union Minister of Housing and Urban Development Venkaiah Nadu announced the inclusion of Jammu and Srinagar in the smart city list at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi today.

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.

While both the capitals of Jammu & Kashmir, Jammu and Srinagar, made it to the list, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Raebareli could not find place. Even the NCR city of Meerut failed to find place. There was a tie between Raebareli and Meerut when Uttar Pradesh had first sent the list of cities for getting smart city tag. Even Ghaziabad did not get selected.

Uttarakhand capital Dehradun this time made it to the list. Mumbai did not participate in the competition. The names were announced by Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu.

Though, Centre was expected to announce the names of 40 cities, non-participation of Bengal and Mumbai brought the numbers down. Moreover, some of the city municipal bodies failed to score the minimum qualifying mark during evaluation of their bid for the tag.

The Smart Cities Mission was launched in June 2015 to improve basic urban infrastructure in India. 100 Smart cities were initially named across the country.

The process of selecting smart cities involves two stages. The first occurs at the level of states, which select their own candidates following a competition. The nominated cities then compete with each other nationally.

The distribution of smart cities across India is determined by a formula worked out by the urban development ministry, which weighs equally a state’s population and its number of cities.

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

Work on new projects has already started in 20 cities that were selected in January 2016, but the 40 cities that were selected in July and September haven’t started yet.
Updated On 6/23/2017 12:35:27 PM