SMART
CITY RANKING - GOVERNANCE
News: Smart Cities ranking: Surat tops,
UTs, N-E cities in bottom 10
What's
in the news?
●
As the Smart Cities Mission approaches the
June 2024 deadline, cities in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan account for the top 10 in terms of
completion of projects and financial progress, while UTs and cities in
Northeastern states are in the lowest 10 of the 100.
Key
takeaways:
Best
Performers:
●
As per the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry data as on November 3, about 22%
of total projects (1,745 of 7,947) that account for 33% (Rs 57,028 crore of Rs
1.70 lakh crore) of the total cost are still ongoing.
●
The majority of projects (6,202) have been
completed, data shows.
●
As of November 10, ministry data showed Surat (Gujarat) topped in terms of
completion of projects, fund usage and other criteria, followed by Agra
(UP), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Varanasi (UP) and Bhopal (MP) in the top five.
●
The rest of the top 10 include Tumakuru
(Karnataka), Udaipur (Rajasthan), Madurai (TN), Kota (Rajasthan) and Shivamogga
(Karnataka).
Lower
Performers:
●
On the other hand, the UTs and Northeastern cities have continued to
trail.
●
The bottom 10 cities are Kavaratti (Lakshadweep), Puducherry,
Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Imphal (Manipur), Shillong
(Meghalaya), Diu, Guwahati (Assam), Aizawl (Mizoram), Gangtok (Sikkim) and
Pasighat (AP). Sources said this was due to lack of capacities in smaller
cities.
Go
back to basics:
Smart
Cities Mission:
●
Launched in 2015, the Smart Cities Mission
selected 100 cities through a
competition in phases from January 2016 to June 2018.
●
The selected cities were expected to
finish all their proposed projects in five years from their selection.
●
In May this year, the deadline for all
cities was extended to June 2024.
Further
Reference - Smart Cities Mission