Chhattisgarh Urban Development Minister Amar Agrawal and PWD, Housing and Environment Minister Rajesh Munat have jointly sought inclusion of four cities of the State under the Centre’s ‘Smart City’ project.
The ministers raised the demand during the National conference of the ministers of all states for the ‘Smart City Scheme’ held at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Friday.The ministers at the conference urged the Centre to develop Raipur-Naya Raipur, Bhilai, Bilaspur and Rajnandgaon as ‘Smart Cities’.
Urban Development Minister Amar Agrawal while speaking at the conference stated that Chhattisgarh has emerged as one of the fastest developing states in the country during the last decade.‘Chhattisgarh’s administrative capital Naya Raipur fits very well into the design and concept of ‘Smart City’ project,' he said.
The Minister also demanded that Naya Raipur should be treated as a ‘Satellite Town and developed jointly with Raipur into a ‘Smart City’.He said that Bhilai is the knowledge hub of Chhattisgarh and already has higher level technical and educational institutions while Bilaspur is the headquarters of South East Central Railway (SECR) which has a High Court and Rajnandgaon has its place in the field of culture, literature and sports.
Agrawal also suggested phase-wise implementation of the project. Other officials who attended the conference were -- Principal Secretary, Urban Development, R P Mandal, Director (Village and Town Planning Investment Department S S Bajaj and Director Urban Administration Rohit Yadav.