22 smart cities to be ready by April: Check list
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As many as 22 smart cities in India will be soon ready as they are set to finish all required projects under the central government's National Smart Cities Mission by April, PTI reported citing officials.
Meanwhile, the remaining 78 cities nominated under the ambitious mission will complete the ongoing projects in the next four months, said a Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry official.
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Details of smart cities that will be ready by April
The first 22 smart cities that will complete all the mission-mandated projects by April are Agra, Ahmedabad, Amaravati, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Erode, Indore, Kakinada, Madurai, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ranchi, Salem, Surat, Thanjavur, Tiruchirappalli, Udaipur, Varanasi, Vellore, and Visakhapatnam.
"We will complete 22 smart cities by March as projects in these cities are in final stages," an official told the news agency PTI.
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Rest 78 cities to complete work within 3-4 months: Ministry
The ministry said the remaining 78 cities picked under the mission will also be able to complete their pending work within the next three-four months.
The goal of the Centre under this flagship project is to promote cities with core infrastructure that adopt "smart solutions" to various issues and give citizens a sustainable and clean environment and a better quality of life.
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Projects worth Rs. 98,796 crore completed: Union minister
Union Minister of State (MoS) for Housing and Urban Affairs, Kaushal Kishore, told Rajya Sabha last month that as of January 27, 5,246 projects worth Rs. 98,796 crore were completed out of 7,804 projects worth Rs. 1,81,322 crore for which work orders were issued in 100 cities.
The Centre released Rs. 36,447 crore under the mission, of which 88% (Rs. 32,095 crore) was utilized.
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UP: Agra, Varanasi ahead in Smart City mission goals
In Uttar Pradesh, over Rs. 5,000 crore-worth funds have been invested in boosting the infrastructure of 10 smart cities since 2019, with Varanasi and Agra leading the way in implementing the mission goals.
While the two cities have achieved most of the milestones and completed over 85% of the goals, the remaining cities are also expediting their ongoing projects, reported The Times of India.
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Know about National Smart City Mission guidelines
Under the mission, the Centre pledged to provide economic support of up to Rs. 48,000 crore over five years—which translates to an average of Rs. 100 crore/year per smart city.
Furthermore, the concerned urban local bodies/state governments will contribute a similar amount to their respective smart cities.
A hundred cities were nominated under the mission, and currently, there is no proposal to expand it.