Last chance for Shillong to get smart

NEW DELHI: Shillong once again missed the chance to be a part of the Centre’s Smart City project as it did not appear on the fourth list that was made public on Friday.
Announcing the new names for the project at a national workshop on urban transformation here, Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation M. Venkaiah Naidu said 45 cities contested for 40 slots but 30 were selected to ensure feasible and workable plans that match the aspirations of the citizens as directed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the launch of the mission.
With this, the total number of cities picked up so far is 90 under the Smart City Mission launched in 2015. Incidentally, from the fresh list of 30 cities, three are from the North East – Pasighat, Aizawl and Gangtok, the last two as state capitals.
However, Shillong still stands a chance since 20 cities will be contesting for the remaining 10 slots under the Smart City Mission. These cities are – Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Biharsharif (Bihar), Diu (Daman & Diu), Silvassa (Dadra and Nager Haveli), Kavaratti (Lakshadweep), Navimumbai, Greater Mumbai and Amaravati (Maharashtra), Imphal (Manipur), Dindigul and Erode (Tamil Nadu), Bidhannagar, Durgapur and Haldia (West Bengal), Meerut, Rai Bareilly, Ghaziabad, Saharanpur and Rampur (Uttar Pradesh), besides Shillong.
Naidu informed that the 30 cities announced on Friday proposed a total investment of Rs 57,393 crore under respective smart city plans. This includes Rs 46,879 crore for ensuring core infrastructure in the areas identified by citizens for area-based development and Rs 10,514 crore for technology-based solutions for improving governance, service delivery and utilisation of infrastructure.
The total investment approved under the smart city plans of 90 cities has gone up to Rs 1,91,155 crore. The minister claimed that selection of cities for smart city development is running ahead of schedule and the remaining cities would submit revised smart city plans for filling up the vacant slots.