Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said that Smart Cities Mission is ahead of the schedule and Smart Cities will start taking shape in next one year.
"Cities are not created overnight. It will take years. However we are ahead of the schedule. So far total 82 projects are under implementation by the first batch of 20 smart cities and another 113 projects will soon take off the ground. In next one year, one would get to see Smart Cities taking shape," Naidu said.
The Minister said that the Centre Government is doing its best to help the cities implement their plan.
"My ministry is hand holding States and urban local bodies at every stage of implementation of smart city mission, My officials have held several rounds of discussions with multi-lateral lending agencies and made them agree to finance smart city plans," Naidu said.
The government on Tuesday announced third list of smart cities that included 27 smart cities from 12 States.
The Golden Temple city of Amritsar topped the list of 27 new smart cities announced by the Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu here today. Eight other cities of pilgrim and tourism importance that made to the third list of smart cities are ; Ujjain, Tirupati, Agra, Nashik, Madurai, Thanjavur, Ajmer and Varanasi. With this the number of cities selected under Smart City Mission for financing implementation of smart city plans has gone up to 60.
"With today’s announcement, implementation of smart city plans is now spread over 27 States and UTs. So far 9 States/UTs still to enter implementation phase are; Uttarakhand, J & K, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra, Nagar & Haveli," Naidu said.
