Lucknow tops second smart city contest
SHILLONG: Shillong which had missed out in the first reckoning of the Smart City Mission has faced the similar fate as only 13 out of 23 cities have qualified for the next round through a fast-track competition result for which was declared by Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Lucknow topped the list of winners.
23 cities with the highest ranking from as many states and union territories, which failed to get representation in the first round of competition held in January participated in the ‘Fast Track Competition’.
Only 12 states and UTs were represented in the first list of 20 mission cities announced in ‘Smart City Challenge Competition’ on January 28.
The other cities that made it to the next round are Warangal (Telangana), Shimla, (Himachal Pradesh), Chandigarh, Raipur (Chhattisgarh), New Town Kolkata (West Bengal), Bhagalpur (Bihar), Panaji (Goa), Port Blair (Andaman & Nicobar Islands), Imphal (Manipur), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura) and Faridabad (Haryana).
The minister said these 13 cities were selected on the basis of marks scored by them in the fast-track competition and the benchmarks set by the top performers in the first cycle of the challenge.
Besides Shillong which was at the bottom of the table, other cities that participated in Fast Track Competition were : Namchi (Sikkim) ranked 14, Aizawl, Mizoram(15), Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh(16), Dehradun, Uttarakhand(17), Kohima, Nagaland(18), Oulgaret, Puducherry(19), Silvassa, Dadra, Nagar & Haveli(20), Kavaratti, Lakshdweep(21), Diu, Daman & Diu(22).
When contacted, Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said that the Government did not wish to have Shillong’s name in this list for several reasons.
“Firstly, we cannot afford the proposed 50:50 funding patter for the Smart city,” Lyngdoh said.
According to Lyngdoh, the Government is of the opinion that centrally empanelled agencies like HPL and NBCC cannot implement the programmes in Meghalaya from another city.
The Minister also said that the department will submit a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Shillong requesting him to consider the peculiar case of Meghalaya.
Assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management systems, efficient urban mobility and public transportation, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation are some of the highlights of the smart city project.
Under the Smart City Mission, 100 cities across the country will be developed as smart cities by 2019-20 with the Union government providing financial support to the extent of Rs 48,000 crore over five years. (With inputs from agencies)
