Seven cities of Madhya Pradesh have been included in the list of 100 cities of the country which would develop into smart city. As many as 98 names out of 100 cities’ list have been announced by Union Ministry of Urban Development.
Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Sagar, Ujjain and Satna have found place in the list of smart cities. After the declaration of the names of the cities officials of Urban Administration Department would prepare proposal in the next two months after which Ministry of Urban Development would examine and would announce the name of the top 20 cities which would develop as smart city in the first phase.
Commissioner of Urban Development and Environment Vivek Agrawal said that for the smart city names of Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Sagar, Ujjain and Satna were sent and along with the sending of these names preparation of second phase was started to help in incorporating of maximum number of cities in the top 20 smart cities.
Minister of Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu at the announcement of the names of the smart cities said that the remaining two names of the cities would be announced later which would be from Jammu and Kashmir. For 100 smart cities Rs48000 crore would be spent in the next five years and by including Amrit cities the total investment would be Rs96000 crore. In the first phase 20 smart cities would be developed while in the second phase 80 cities would be developed.
He said that population of four cities would be more than 50 lakh while 24 State capitals have been included in the 98 cities announced. The development would be done under Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and smart city would be developed in a 50-50 partnership of state and urban authority and government would bring private players. Out of 98, 90 Amrit cities would be developed. This year every city would get Rs200 and Rs100 every year in the next four years.
Under smart city project around 13 crore people would be benefitted and among the beneficiaries population 35 percent population would be urban.