Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the country's first greenfield industrial smart city, Auric City, at Shendra here, which is projected to attract around Rs 70,000 crore in investments on completion.

The mega project in the parched region of Marathawada region of Maharashtra is part of the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, and is expected to boost the overall development of the historically backward region.

Auric City is also touted to be the country's first 'walk-to-work' smart industrial city which will encourage housing options, workplaces, and shopping centres, to be developed in the vicinity of each other.

Inaugurating the administrative headquarters of the smart city — Auric Hall — from where the entire industrial city and its facilities will be operated, Modi said Aurangabad is not only becoming a new smart city but also is going to become a centre of the nation's industrial activities and once fully operational will create lakhs of jobs.

Dedicating it to the nation, Modi said, "in the new- age digital era ecosystem, requirements of businesses are rapidly evolving and such businesses which frame their value proposition on smart technologies, it makes sense to provide them a comprehensive ecosystem that itself is smart."

Meanwhile, at another function, Modi announced that the Ujjwala scheme, under which the government gives subsidized cooking gas connections to poor families, has crossed the 8th crore mark much ahead of targeted timeline.

"Not only we have fulfilled our promise but also have achieved the goal seven months before the promised time. Of these 8 crore LGP connections, nearly 44 lakh are given in Maharashtra alone," Modi said, adding "our efforts is to see that every family in the country has an LPG connection."