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To fast track the resolution of area based infrastructure issues, the union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday launched the Local Area Plan (LAP) and Town Plan Schemes (TPS) for 25 smart cities in the country, under which the ministry will provide Rs 2 crore as central assistance to every city for planned urban expansion.
An amount of Rs 50 crore would be provided as Central assistance at the rate of Rs 2 crore per city for identified 25 cities for preparing LAP/TPS. The Central assistance will be released in three installments; 20 percent with submission of preliminary proposal, 40 percent during submission of draft plan and remaining 40 percent during submission of final plan, a ministry statement said.
The 25 cities are Greater Visakhapatnam, Guwahati, Vadodara, Indore, Chennai, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Warangal, Pune, Varanasi, Jaipur, Amritsar, Patna, Faridabad, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, Raipur, Panaji, Shimla, New Kolkata, Srinagar, Dehradun, Aizawl, Gangtok and Imphal.
The LAP and TPS has been formulated under AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) to enable planning for developing infrastructure in the brownfield areas (those parts of the city that are already developed but not able to sustain the pressure on the existing infrastructure) and thegreenfield areas (periphery of the city that is prone to haphazard growth and development), respectively.
The exercise of preparing Local Area Plan and Town Planning Scheme is expected to be completed in a period of one year; the preliminary proposal in two months, the draft plan in 10 months. Town and Country Planning Organization (TCPO) will provide hand holding support to the state nodal agency, the ministry said.
Guidelines have been prepared for the operationalisation of the scheme and shall be circulated to 25 states where the cities have been identified with a request to submit the proposal for preparing LAP/TPS.
Puri also launched the smart cities digital payment award. He told reporters it is intended to promote 'Digital India' and ease of living for India's urban residents. It seeks to promote digital payments and encourage smart cities to adopt innovative digital payment initiatives.
To a question if the country will get the first Smart City before the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Puri said it's a long-term project and does not rely on election.
Giving details about 'Smart Cities Digital Payments Awards 2018', the minister said that its objective is to guide, motivate, recognise and reward the smart cities for promoting digital payments and carrying out innovative payment initiatives in their respective cities. The challenge period would be 100 days starting from the launch of the awards. The awards will be conferred based on a two-stage process.
In a statement, the ministry said the last date for submission of responses for first stage is September 15. Dates for final results will be announced later. For evaluation purpose, the smart cities will be divided into four different categories based on their population -- up to five lakh, 5-10 lakh, 1 million to 4 million and above four million.
The minister also launched Smart Cities fellowship and internship programmes that would provide the youth an opportunity to experience various aspects of urban planning and governance. Under the fellowship programmes, the ministry will engage 30 young graduates, postgraduates and PhD-holders in the fields of urban planning, urban design, engineering, information and technology, urban mobility, finance, social sector, and environmental issues.
Interested applicants can apply online through Smart Net (https:martnet.niua.org) till August 31. Applications received will be scrutinised and shortlisted by a selection committee, the ministry said.
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