With the Centre on Thursday releasing the list of 98 cities selected to be developed as “Smart Cities”, three from Punjab —Amritsar, ludhiana, and Jalandhar; two from Haryana— Karnal and Faridabad; and one from Himachal Pradesh—Dharmashala make it to the list.
Besides, Punjab and Haryana’s joint capital city and Union Territory of Chandigarh will also be known as a “Smart City”, along with the tag of “City Beautiful”. In the next five years, `three lakh crore will be spent in developing these cities to provide world class infrastructure, sustainable environment and smart solutions. Each smart city would get a central assistance of `100 crore per year for five years from the Government.
The cities were selected on the basis of a competition held on parameters such as service levels, financial and institutional capacity, past track record and reforms.
Smart City Mission is viewed as BJP-led NDA Government’s big push for urban renewal in almost 100 Indian cities and towns. Hailing the inclusion of two cities, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar said that the State Government had requested the Centre to include two cities, Karnal and Faridabad, in the list of 100 smart cities, which was accepted.
Apart from this, he said, the State Govt has also urged to include Gurgaon in the list of Smart Cities for which funding of `100 crore per year would be made by the State Government.