Every State to get one Smart City, says M.Venkaiah Naidu

Every State to get one Smart City, says M.Venkaiah Naidu

By NewsGram Staff Writer

Every State in the country will get to develop at least one city as Smart City under the central government's initiative of developing 100 smart cities, Minister of Urban Development, M.Venkaiah Naidu informed Rajya Sabha today.

"The Union Cabinet accorded approval for the Smart Cities Mission last week and guidelines for its implementation including the criteria for selection of cities are being finalised," Naidu said. The Minister clarified that the process of selection of cities for developing them as smart cities will be initiated after the guidelines are issued to the States.

The Minister informed the House that Smart City aspirants will be selected based on a 'City Challenge Competition.' He said that the cities will be graded based on their revenues, expenditure, availability of infrastructure relating to transport, drinking water, solid waste management etc. Naidu emphasized the need for smart leadership and smart people to achieve the objectives of the Smart Cities Mission by undertaking the much needed urban reforms.

Elaborating on the benefits of India-US Cooperation in making Visakhapatnam, Allahabad and Ajmer as Smart Cities, Naidu said that that the US will extend technical support for preparing master plans for these three cities besides assisting in capacity building and undertaking feasibility studies etc. He clarified that there will be no financial support from the US. The United States Trade Development Agency (USTDA) has signed MoU with the States of Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan in this regard.

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