Kohima finally selected in the list of 27 new Smart Cities

Dimapur, September 20 : Nagaland has finally made it to the smart city list for the first time. The 27 smart cities announced today are from 12 States including 5 from Maharashtra, 4 each from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, 3 from Uttar Pradesh and 2 each from Punjab and Rajasthan and 1 each from Nagaland and Sikkim. The Golden Temple city of Amritsar topped the list. With today’s announcement, implementation of smart city plans is now spread over 27 States and UTs, said Minister of Urban Development M.Venkaiah Naidu. Stating that Smart City Mission is running ahead of schedule, Naidu informed that the next round of competition to select the remaining 40 cities would begin in January next year. Speaking to Eastern Mirror, Parliamentary Secretary for Municipal Affairs, Economics and Statistics, R Tohanba said the selection is a great achievement for the state of Nagaland, and its citizens in particular. He said, this has been possible through the participation, cooperation and support of the state government, stakeholders and the media houses. He also said that the selection is not the end, but just the beginning to start the real work. Now that Kohima is selected, Tohanba said how to go about it for the smart city mission will also solely depend on the participation and cooperation of the citizens, and therefore, sought for the continued support of all stakeholders. When asked what would be the next step, Tohanba said it will await further instructions from the Having missed to be on the first and second list of Smart Cities Mission (SMC) earlier this year, Kohima was given a chance for inclusion in the mission from amongst a list of 23 Fast Track Cities. KMC in consultation with stakeholders of the capital city and Gurgaon-based Voyants Solutions Pvt Ltd has prepared a fresh Detailed Project Report and submitted on April 10 to the centre. As per the Mission guidelines, as many as 40 cities have to be announced during this financial year, and the government had already announced 13 cities in May. In January, the government had announced a list of 20 cities for partial funding to be developed as smart cities, which would have facilities such as assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management systems, efficient urban mobility and public transportation, IT connectivity and e-governance among others. Each city will receive Central assistance of Rs 200 crore in the first year and Rs 100 crore over the three subsequent financial years. State government and respective Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) will also match the Centre’s contribution and transform Kohima by providing basic requirements such as proper electricity, water supply, information technology, better traffic management, security, improve road conditions, A separate press note issued by CMO said Chief Minister TR Zeliang had taken up efforts to include Kohima as a Smart City, on a personal level and had numerous rounds of meetings with the consultants, department officials and all stakeholders in the last few months. "Undaunted by the inability of Kohima to find mention in the first and second selection lists, the Chief Minister had renewed his vigor and had been urging the department concerned to take up the matter on war-footing, and to rectify the short-comings which prevented the state capital from getting the required points." "The Chief Minister also had been meeting central leaders along with Municipal Affairs Parliamentary Secretary Tohanba, and had been reminding them of the historic and strategic location of Kohima city, being the location of one of the greatest and fiercest as well as one of the most important battlefields of the Allied Forces during the WW II." "Presently, camped in Delhi, the Chief Minister, upon hearing the good news, had rung up the Department concerned and had personally conveyed the information and congratulated the officials for their hard work which had finally bore fruit. He is expected to call on the Union Minister tomorrow to thank him personally." the press note added. Announcing the cities that were selected in a competition among 63 cities, Naidu said “The willingness and enthusiasm among cities to participate in more than one round of competition is a clear evidence of the urban renaissance set in motion. Competition bases selection has made the cities rediscover themselves as they are undertaking a thorough assessment of gaps in the present levels of infrastructure and service delivery and come out with comprehensive, credible and actionable plans for area based development and technology based Pan-city solutions” 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. The Minister informed that the new 27 smart cities have proposed an investment of Rs.66,883 cr under smart city plans including Rs.42,524 cr under Area Based Development and another Rs.11,379 cr for technology based Pan-city solutions that benefits all the citizens of respective cities. With this, the total investment proposed by the 60 cities selected so far has gone up to Rs.1,44,742 cr, he said. (With inputs from PIB)