By Business India Editorial

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that 80 of the 100 ‘Smart Cities’ in the country have Integrated Command and Control Centres and the remaining will get it by 15 August.

Puri was inaugurating the three-day ‘Smart Cities, Smart Urbanisation’ conference organised by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in association with Surat Smart City Corporation Development Ltd as part of the Centre’s Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.

“Work has started in almost all government-funded projects in the Smart City Mission (SCM) and projects under it will be completed by next year. A total of 80 of the 100 Smart Cities have Integrated Command and Control Centres, and the remaining 20 will be operational by 15 August this year,” he said in his inaugural address.

Smart cities were selected after stakeholder consultations and work on them has been the fastest among government schemes despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Puri said, adding that the experience gained will help make SCM a people’s movement.

The Smart Cities Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2015 and it was designed as part of a multi-layer strategy to meet the aspirations of 40 per cent of the country’s population living in cities, said a government release.

Of the total investment of Rs2,05,018 crore under SCM, projects worth Rs93,552 crore were proposed to be developed by Centre and state funds, and almost 100 per cent of these government-funded projects have seen work ordered, said the release.

On the first day of the conference, award winners of the India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC) 2020 were felicitated. These awards were earlier announced through a virtual conference in 2021 due to the pandemic.

Surat and Indore were given the Best City award, while Uttar Pradesh was awarded the Best State.

Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore, Union MoS Railways Darshana Jardosh along with principal secretaries of states and Union Territories, municipal commissioners, MDs and CEOs of 100 Smart Cities, Mission Directorates and professionals attended the event.

During the event, several new schemes were also launched, including a “virtual hub for collaborations on urban transformation” in partnership between SCM and the World Economic Forum.

The hub will leverage emerging technologies and innovations to transform Indian cities into centres of sustainable, inclusive and resilient growth, said the release.