lucknow became the only city in UP to be selected among the 13 Smart Cities of the country by the Union government. The result of a contest in this regard was announced by Union Urban Development ministry in New Delhi on Tuesday.
In January last, lucknow came a dismal 29th in a contest to be nominated for the project and no other city from UP were even remotely close. However in the fast track competition, the City of Nawabs topped the list of 13 cities.
The other cities selected in the fast track competition are New Town in Kolkata, Bhagalpur, Dharamsala, Chandigarh, Faridabad, Raipur, Ranchi, Warangal, Agartala, Imphal, Port Blair and Panaji.
Mayor Dinesh Sharma attributed the selection of the city in the Smart City list as a victory for the people of lucknow.
“lucknow has the potential of becoming one of the most beautiful cities of the world and now our dreams would be achieved,” he said.
“The people of the city have supported the government in a big way to achieve the goal and now it is up to them to assist the government in converting the city into a smart one,” said Sharma in lucknow on Tuesday.
As per the project, Smart Cities country will enjoy uninterrupted power and water supplies, internet connectivity, e-governance along with quality infrastructure. Each city will be given Rs 500 crore by the Centre over a period of five years. The states will have to make an equal contribution.
In January, when the first 20 smart cities were chosen, the Urban Development ministry had come under fire for leaving out cities of bigger states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Earlier all the 12 cities from UP -short-listed from 98 potential cities - lost out in the first round in January.
Smart Cities are picked though a two-stage process. First, a state shortlists cities and sends them to the Centre after which these nominated cities compete with each other.
The selection is based on scores the cities get for carrying out urban reforms in sanitation and governance and other fields. The 12 UP cities which lost the race are Moradabad, Aligarh, Saharanpur, Bareilly, Jhansi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Agra and Rampur.