Vandana Ramnani
Moneycontrol News
The slot for the 10th smart city, Shillong, which was selected in the fourth smart cities round, has been kept on hold as the city is yet to submit its proposal.
The Centre had announced the final list of nine smart cities in January this year and had kept the slot for the tenth city, Shillong, vacant as it could not submit its proposal on time. The proposal is yet to be submitted.
“That one slot has been kept vacant for Shillong. There was a certain deliberate decision taken that they submit a proposal that has been delayed because they are busy with elections. But after the elections, we expect a proposal to come from them,” union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Puri told Moneycontrol.
Meghalaya goes to poll on February 27.
“In the past, Tamil Nadu had its smart cities proposals delayed on account of a leadership crisis, yet the slots had been kept vacant and submitted by them subsequently. In similar vein, it is likely that Shillong would submit its proposal as soon as elections process is completed,” says Pratap Padode, founder and director of the Smart Cities Council of India.
The nine cities that made it to the smart cities list in January included three from Uttar Pradesh – Bareilly, Moradabad and Saharanpur, Bihar Sharif (Bihar), Erode (Tamil Nadu), Silvassa (Dadra and Nagar Havelli), Daman and Diu, Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) and Kavaratti (Lakshadweep).
Till date, 99 cities have been selected under the NDA government’s flagship program, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2015. Among the states, West Bengal has chosen not participate in the competition to choose smart cities. Only one city from the state – New Town – was selected when the second list was announced in September 2016 but with the state deciding to walk out of the program soon after, there is no progress on the ground.
As on January, 189 projects worth Rs 2,237 crore have been completed, while another 2,948 projects worth Rs 1.38 lakh crore are in various stages of implementation.
Meant to change the way urban India lives, smart cities will enjoy uninterrupted power and water supplies, internet connectivity, e-governance along with quality infrastructure, according to the government.
The selection of smart cities is based on the scores cities get for carrying out urban reforms in areas, including sanitation and governance. Cities that score the highest will be picked for the project, to be implemented over a 10-year period.
The 100 Smart Cities Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 25, 2015. Under the mission, the Centre allocates Rs 500 crore to each of the cities for implementing projects proposed by it. This amount is matched with a grant of the same amount by the respective state.
Vandana.ramnani@nw18.com
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