Government announces 30 new Smart Cities

Union Minister for Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, M. Venkaiah Naidu has announced a new batch of 30 smart cities under Smart City Mission, which was launched on June 25, 2015. 

Salient Highlights

The newly selected cities include Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala,  Naya Raipur in Chhattisgarh, Rajkot in Gujarat, Amravati in Andhra Pradesh, Patna in Bihar, Karimnagar in Telangana, Muzaffarpur in Bihar, Puducherry, Gandhinagar in Gujarat, Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, Sagar in Madhya Pradesh, Karnal in Haryana, Satna in Madhya Pradesh, Bengaluru in Karnataka, Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, Dehradun in Uttarakhand, Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, Pimpri Chinchwad in Maharashtra, Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu in Jammu & Kashmir, Dahod in Gujarat, Tirunelveli, Thootukkudi and Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, Aizawl in Mizoram, Allahabad and Aligarh in U.P. and Gangtok in Sikkim.
With the addition of these 30 smart cities, the total cities picked up under the Smart City Mission has reached 90.
The government has selected 30 cities against the available 40 smart city slots to ensure feasible and workable plans that fulfill the aspirations of the citizens.
Out of the 30 cities, 26 had proposed affordable housing projects, 26 had proposed new schools and hospitals and 29 had proposed redesign and development of roads.
The government will further select 10 more cities under smart city mission as 100 cities were supposed to be selected for the Smart Cities Mission in total. The remaining 20 cities that will be contesting for the remaining 10 slots 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).
Total proposed investment for the development of 30 cities is Rs.57,393 crores. It includes Rs.46,879 crores for ensuring core infrastructure and Rs.10,514 crores technology-based solutions for improving governance, service delivery and utilization of infrastructure.

Background

The Smart City Mission is flagship scheme of Union Government that will cover 100 cities and its duration is five years (2015-16 to 2019-20).
The focus of the smart city mission is on sustainable and inclusive development and set examples which can be replicated in other parts of the city and other cities of the country. There are 10 core infrastructure elements viz. adequate water supply; assured electricity supply; sanitation, including solid waste management; efficient urban mobility and public transport; affordable housing, especially for the poor; robust IT connectivity and digitalization; good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation; sustainable environment; safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly; and health and education.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2017