Smart Cities Workshop in New Town Kolkata on September 12
UD Minister Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu to interact with Mayors, Municipal Chairpersons and Commissioners of 20 smart cities from 13 Eastern and N-E States, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh
As a part of the ongoing stakeholder consultations for effective implementation of the Smart City Mission in the country, Urban Development Minister Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu will interact with Mayors, Municipal Chairpersons and Commissioners of 20 cities included in the Mission from 13 Eastern and North-Eastern states and Chattisgarh and Jharkhand at a Workshop in New Town Kolkata on September 12, 2015. This Regional Workshop on Smart Cities will also be attended by Principal Secretaries of Urban Development and other senior officials from these states.
Minister of State for Urban Development Shri Babul Supriyo will also participate in the discussions in the Workshop.
Shri Venkiah Naidu will broadly outline the challenges to be addressed for building smart cities including the need for a forward looking and visionary leadership by both the elected and executive heads of these cities, need for urban governance reforms and an enabling environment for mobilization of resources required for Smart City Mission including through Publi-Private-Partnership model.
20 Cities included in the Smart City Mission from these 13 states include : New Town Kolkata, Bidhanpur, Durgapur and Haldia from West Bengal, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Biharshariff from Bihar, Bhubaneswar and Rourkela from Odisha, Raipur and Bilaspur from Chattisgarh, Ranchi from Jharkhand, Namchi in Sikkim and the North-Eastern cities of Guwahaty, Pasighat(Arunachal Pradesh), Imphal, Shillong, Aizawl, Kohima and Agartala.
Each of these cities have been given Rs.2.00 cr each for preparation of city level Smart City Plans in the next three months. All the 100 city level plans will be evaluated based on a set of elaborate criteria in the second stage of City Challenge competition for identifying the top scoring 20 cities for financing during the current financial year.
These 20 cities have been nominated by the respective state governments after the first round of competition, further to evaluation of all urban local bodies in each state as per a set of criteria including the existing service levels, institutional and financial capacities and past track record in implementation of JNNURM projects and reforms undertaken.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has launched the Smart City Mission on June 25 this year. The central government has made a provision of Rs.48,000 cr for five years for supporting the Smart City Mission through central assistance of Rs.100 cr per city per year. States and urban local bodies have to make a matching contribution and have to mobilize additional required resources through various sources including PPP Model, loans from bilateral and multi-lateral agencies, municipal bonds etc.
