No extension beyond Dec 15 Smart City plan deadline: MoUD

NEW DELHI, November 3: The Union Urban Development Ministry today asserted that there will be no extension of time beyond December 15, 2015 this year for submission of city level Smart City Plans by respective urban local bodies and states. This was made clear by the Ministry at a meeting with Principal Secretaries of state Urban Development departments and Municipal Commissioners of some cities included in the Smart City Mission, from nine states. The states represented at the meeting were UP, MP, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Nagaland. In fact, some Municipal Commissioners raised the issue stating that they have been working hard on preparation of Smart City Plans to meet the deadline of December 15 this year, set by the UD Ministry, for submission of plans and if the Ministry would consider extension of time if such requests were received. The concerned Ministry officials, quoting Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu emphasized that no such extension beyond December 15 will even be considered and urged all mission cities to adhere to this timeline. Today s meeting was convened to discuss with officials of states and mission cities the actions being undertaken for preparation of city level smart city plans and particularly, efforts towards ensuring citizen participation in formulating smart city vision for each mission city and action plans besides the criteria for evaluation of smart city plans, to be submitted by December 15. 98 cities from all the states and Union Territories have so far been included in the Smart City Mission, launched by Prime Minister in June this year. This first round of selection of 98 cities was made based on competition among various urban local bodies in each state, based on a set of criteria. In the second stage of City Challenge competition, 20 top scoring mission cities will be selected from among the 98 city level Smart City Plans to be received by December 15, for financing during the current financial year. First batch of cities to be selected in the second stage of competition will be provided with central assistance of Rs 200 crore each during this financial year followed by Rs 100 crore per year during the next three years. UD Ministry had earlier released Rs two crore each to mission cities for preparation of Smart City Plans.