Bhubaneswar and Puri included in the list
Even as the NDA Government at the Centre, in its maiden Union Budget, announced building 100 Smart Cities across the country, the modalities of which are yet to commence, the Odisha Government has already proposed to cover 10 cities under the ‘100 smart cities’ plan.
Housing & Urban Development Minister Puspendra Singh Deo informed the media here that the State Government has already proposed the names of 10 cities to the Centre for the purpose.
The names of these cities include Bhubaneswar and Puri, which are already covered under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). While Cuttack has been declared a heritage city, two more cities, Rourkela and Sambalpur, have been declared as new municipal corporations. The other cities are Bhadrak, Balangir, Jajpur, Jeypore, and Bhawanipatna.
However, the Kendrapada Municipality has not been enlisted in the State Government’s proposal. On the other hand, Kendrapada MP Baijayant Panda said recently that he has proposed inclusion of the city under Smart City Plan and a proposal has been given by him to the Centre. He expressed hope that his proposal would be considered.
Singh Deo said, “We have only given the proposal of 10 cities to the Centre. The modalities for the Smart City Plan are yet to be prepared. We have not yet received any plan from the Centre either about modalities or about identification of cities. When we will receive detailed information from the Centre, we will work out what best can be done.”
In his Budget speech, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had made the grandiose promise of building 100 Smart Cities as part of Prime Minister Modi’s Acche Din vision. He has also allocated Rs 7,060 crore, which is little over Rs 70 crore per city. Since the funds allocated for each city are not enough and it is unlikely that the Government will have the resources to fund for building Smart Cities, it was hinted in the budget that the Government would relax norms for foreign direct investment (FDI). In the meantime, France, Japan and Singapore have been contacted for collaborating in the projects.
The concept of Smart City is a vision of an urban space that is livable and ecology-friendly, technologically-integrated and meticulously-planned with the use of information technology. India is fast urbanising and a study suggests that nearly 60 crore people will be living in cities by 2030 as against 29 crore reported in 2001 census.Odisha is also not far behind although the rate of urbanisation in the State is comparatively slower than many other States.