Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the work on Smart City Mission from Pune on June 25, paving way for works simultaneously in 20 cities across the country. The Smart City mission, one of the flagship programmes of the NDA Government, was announced on June 25 last year.
The Urban Development Ministry has decided to mark the event from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), which ranked second in the contest under the smart city mission a year ago, after assessing the performances of the selected 20 cities on the implementation of the projects. Odisha's capital Bhubaneswar had topped the list.
Informing that Modi will launch the anniversary celebration from Pune, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said that that development of some cities as 'smart cities' would motivate others also to work for progress.
"It is like a light house. If there is a light house, everybody would look at that. If some smart cities are developed, there will be competition among others also, municipalities will increase their revenue and things will improve," he said in Hyderabad.
Naidu was speaking at a reception organised on his visit to the Telangana BJP headquarters in the city after his election to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
On June 25 last year, the Centre had launched the smart city mission and released its mission statement and guidelines. It also shortlisted 98 potential smart cities in August last year and through a contest, 20 winners, including Pune and Solapur, were selected early this year to get funds .
In May, the government announced 13 more cities to be eligible for priority funding under the Smart City mission. lucknow topped the second list in rating followed by Warangal, Dharamshala, Chandigarh, Raipur, New Town Kolkata, Bhagalpur, Panaji among others.
These 13 are among the 98 cities that were selected for the Rs 48,000-crore mission last year. The total proposed investment for the 33 cities, through Union and state governments as well as private funding, comes to Rs 80,789 crore.
A 'smart city' is an urban region that is highly advanced in terms of overall infrastructure, sustainable real estate, communications and market viability. It is a city where information technology is the principal infrastructure and the basis for providing essential services to residents.