Punjab Government on Friday decided upon the consultants who would give final shape to the proposals for developing Amritsar, ludhiana and Jalandhar as smart cities.
The Government had appointed Jones lang laSalle, Tata Consulting Engineer, Townland (Hong Kong) for Amritsar, AECOM India, IBM for ludhiana and IIDC/UMTC/BDP (UK) for Jalandhar to finalise the proposals for smart cities which is to be submitted to the Central Government, said the State local Government Minister Anil Joshi.
A high powered steering committee (HPSC) has accorded approval of the Smart City proposals of Amritsar, ludhiana and Jalandhar prepared by the consultants, he said adding that these would be forwarded to the Centre for inclusion in the Stage-II competition at national level.
At an initial stage, 20 cities are expected to be selected for the financial year 2015-16 and thereafter 40 cities shall be selected in each of the next two stages, he added.
The last date for submission of these proposals was December 15, and the selected smart city under Stage-II, shall receive `500 crores in five years from the Centre and an equal amount of share shall be contributed by the State for implementation of the Smart City Proposal.
Under Stage-I competition, the Centre had selected three potential smart cities of Punjab — Amritsar, ludhiana and Jalandhar.