Centre will spend 1 lakh cr: Venkaiah

Urban development mission

Hyderabad: Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said the Union Cabinet had recently approved Centre’s spending of Rs one lakh crore on urban development under two new urban missions over the next five years.

Addressing a two-day conference on “Smart City and Delivery of Civic Services” organised by Vijnan Bharati, he said the Cabinet had approved the Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) of 500 cities with outlays of Rs 48,000 crore and Rs 50,000 crore respectively.

Under the Smart Cities Mission, each selected city would get financial assistance and the programme would be mainly through Private Public Participation (PPP) model. Smart City aspirants would be selected through a “City Challenge Competition” intended to link financing with the ability of the cities to perform to achieve the mission objectives, he said, adding that each State would shortlist a certain number of smart city aspirants in accordance with the norms to be indicated and they would prepare smart city proposals for further evaluation for extending Central support.

In the absence of planned urbanisation, citizens would be required to unnecessarily travel long distances from home to work and other places, land and housing costs were getting beyond the reach of common man, poor were getting more and more deprived of the benefits of urbanisation, Venkaiah Naidu said.

The Union Minister said “Smart Cities” basically were intended to address prolems in the context of present urban living in the country and, smart cities should offer such urban eco-systems that make cities and towns more liveable by improving upon virtually every facet of daily life by bridging the infrastructure deficit and enhancing the quality and delivery of all services that are required for such better living.