26 Bihar cities to be developed under AMRUT

Amid reports that only three cities of Bihar have been chosen to be developed as Smart Cities which did not include Patna, Union Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu clarified here on Friday that the State Government had proposed Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Biharsharif for the Smart City programme and Patna had not been proposed in view of the laid down criteria. The Centre will release a yearly grant of `500 crore for each of the cities earmarked to be developed as a Smart City.

However, Naidu said that sufficient funds would be provided to Patna under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) Scheme to improve the basic civic infrastructure like water supply, drainage system, transport system etc.

He said that comprehensive urban development under (AMRUT) would be taken up by the Centre for 26 cities of Bihar namely, Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Biharsharif, Muzaffarpur, Katihar, Saharsa, Dehri, Jamalpur, Jehanabad, Buxar, Aurangabad, Darbhanga, Purnea, Ara, Begusarai, Munger, Chapra, Danapur Nizamat, Hajipur, Sasaram, Siwan, Bettiah, Motihari, Bagaha and Kishanganj.

Naidu opened the lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan campus which is located next to Central Government office building. The project is in alignment with Centre’s policy namely Walk to Work. This office complex which will be called ‘Karpoori Thakur Sadan’ will be housing 21 central Government departments. 

The Union Minister also informed that Centre has selected Gaya as a heritage city under Heritage City Development & Augmentation Yojana for its comprehensive development. He also said that the Centre is committed to construct house for each and every needy family living in urban area in Bihar for which sufficient funds will be sanctioned based on land to be made available by the State Governments.