Amritsar has topped the list of 27 new Smart Cities announced by the Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu. Eight other cities of pilgrim and tourism importance that made it to the third list of Smart Cities are: Ujjain, Tirupati, Agra, Nashik, Madurai, Thanjavur, Ajmer and Varanasi. With this, the number of cities selected under the Smart City Mission for financing implementation of Smart City plans has gone up to 60.
Announcing the cities that were selected in a competition among 63 cities, Naidu said, “The willingness and enthusiasm among cities to participate in more than one round of competition is a clear evidence of the urban renaissance set in motion. Competition-based selection has made the cities rediscover themselves as they are undertaking a thorough assessment of gaps in the present levels of infrastructure and service delivery, to come out with comprehensive, credible and actionable plans for Area-Based Development and technology-based Pan-city solutions.”
The minister said that the new 27 Smart Cities have proposed an investment of Rs 66,883 crore under Smart City plans including Rs 42,524 crore under Area-Based Development and another Rs 11,379 crore for technology based Pan-city solutions that benefit all the citizens of the respective cities. With this, the total investment proposed by the 60 cities selected so far has gone up to Rs 1,44,742 crore, he said.
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