Smart City Awards-2020: Indore and Surat at the forefront of 100 cities of the country; Among the states, UP first, Madhya Pradesh second

For the first time, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has given awards to the states for the overall performance and better role of their cities. Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced these in a virtual program.

The results of the India Smart City Contest-2020 were announced on Friday on the completion of 6 years of the Smart City Mission, one of the most important projects of the Modi government. Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri gave awards to the best cities in a virtual program.

In terms of overall performance among 100 smart cities, Surat and Indore have won. Uttar Pradesh is at the forefront of the states. Madhya Pradesh has been adjudged the first and Tamil Nadu as the second runner up. In 2019, Surat was the only winner in Smart Cities. This time he has to share this award with Indore.

UP made 7 cities smart cities, hence number-1
This is the first time that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has given awards to the states for their overall performance and better role in their cities. UP has got the first prize for making seven more cities smart cities on their own. These cities are Meerut, Ghaziabad, Ayodhya, Firozabad, Gorakhpur, Mathura-Vrindavan and Saharanpur.

Kalyan and Varanasi winners in the Covid Innovation category
The ministry has also declared joint winners under the Covid innovation category. Kalyan-Dombivli in Maharashtra and Varanasi in UP have won this award. According to the ministry, the total expenditure of 5,924 proposed projects under the mission is Rs 1.78 lakh crore. Tenders have been done for these. Work orders have been issued for 5,236 projects. 2,665 projects worth Rs 45,080 crore have been completed and are in the works.

4 star rating for 9 cities
The ministry said that 70 smart cities have developed their own integrated command and control centres. Along with the infrastructure prepared under the mission, they are also acting as war rooms for covid management. Such centers are being developed in all 100 cities.

The ministry has launched a report on Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) 2.0. 126 cities participated in it. The 9 best performing cities are rated 4 stars. These include Surat, Indore, Ahmedabad, Pune, Vijayawada, Rajkot, Visakhapatnam, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Vadodara. Ahmedabad, Varanasi and Ranchi have been selected for the Smart Cities Leadership Award.