Steel city Rourkela found place in the third round of competition in the list of urban centres to be developed as a Smart City. With this, Rourkela becomes the second city in Odisha to be included in the list, after Bhubaneswar.
Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Information and Broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday announced the list of 27 among the 67 cities.
The other cities are Agra, Ajmer, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Gwalior, Hubbali-Dharwad, Jalandhar, Kalyan-Bombivali, Kanpur, Kohima, Kota, Madurai, Mangaluru, Nagpur, Namchi, Nashik, Rourkela, Salem, Shivamogga, Thane, Thanjavur, Tirupati, Tamakuru, Ujjain, Vadodara, Vellore and Varanasi.
The total investment in 27 cities that would be developed as “Smart” is envisaged at about Rs 66,883 crore.
After the declaration of Rourkela in the list of Smart City, a cheerful mood was noticed among various sections of the public. Celebrations were seen at different squares of city by bursting crackers and distributing sweets.
“I on behalf of RMC and district administration congratulate the people of Rourkela on the historic moment,” said Rourkela Municipal Commissioner AK Mallick.
Mallick also hoped that the Smart City tag for the city will soon be reflected as a host of projects would be coming up in the city, to upgrade the quality of life for the people of the city. “As a part of Smart City project, we have already identified five major areas of the city, between Bisra Chowk to Panposh, which would be developed as model areas,” Mallick said. “Similarly, some of the longstanding projects like solid waste management, underground drainage system, WiFi system in the city as a part of city governance would be reality in Rourkela city, with the help of Smart City project,” Mallick added.
Rourkela MlA Dilip Ray expressed his happiness over the announcement.