Silvassa in Dadra and Nagar Haveli was adjudged the top city among the nine winning cities of Round Four of the National Smart Cities Challenge, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri announced here on Friday.
The other eight cities are: Erode (Tamil Nadu), Diu (Daman and Diu), Biharsharif (Bihar), Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh), Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Moradabad and Saharanpur (both Uttar Pradesh) and Kavaratti (Lakshwadeep).
“It is heartening to note that the winning cities have improved the quality of their Smart City proposals by 19% (average) to become eligible for selection. Each city has developed a unique vision and has selected an area which will be developed as a lighthouse, to be replicated by the city. The nine cities selected have proposed an investment of Rs 12,824 crore of which Rs 10,639 crore would be in area based development (ABD) and Rs 2,185 crore in pan city initiatives which would be impacting 35.3 lakh persons living in these areas,” he said.
These nine cities have approximately 409 projects. The funding sources for these projects is proposed to be with; SCM – with contribution from State and Centre 61.25%, Convergence 24.19%, PPP 12.90%, Own sources 1.57%, and other sources 0.09%. With today’s announcement 99 cities Smart Cities have been selected. Twenty cities were selected in January 2016, 13 cities in May 2016, 27 cities in September 2016 and 30 cities in June 2017. With the selection of these nine cities, the total proposed investment in the 99 Smart City Mission would Rs 2,03,979 crore.
As on 17 January this year, there are 2,948 projects worth Rs. 1,38,730 crore which are in various stages of implementation. Altogether 189 projects worth Rs 2,237 crore have been completed, and implementation is underway for 495 projects with a cost of Rs 18,616 crore; further tenders have been floated for 277 projects at a cost of Rs15,885 crore; while 1,987 projects worth Rs.1,01,992 crore are at DPR stage.
The minister also announced the commencement of the Liveability Index Programme in 116 cities.
The ministry has through an international bidding process under World Bank funded CBUD programme selected IPSOS Research Private Limited in consortium with Athena Infonomics India Private Limited and Economist Group Limited for assessment of liveability indices in 116 cities.