UP ranks first under Smart Cities mission
NEW DELHI: The Union ministry of housing and urban affairs has ranked Uttar Pradesh as top performer under the Smart Cities mission’s India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC) 2020 followed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Among cities, Indore and Surat were adjudged joint winners. Among Union Territories, Chandigarh was ranked first.
The awards were announced on Friday to commemorate 6 years of the three urban transformative missions of the Central government -- Smart Cities Mission (SCM), Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and
Pradhan Mantri Awas YojanaUrban (PMAY-U), which were launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25, 2015.
These awards were given across the themes of social aspects, governance, culture, urban environment, sanitation, economy, built environment, water, urban mobility. Some new themes were also added this year for Sustainable Business model of Integrated Command and Control Centres, and Innovation award specially in Covid management.
“Since 2018, we have felicitated the top-performing cities through the India Smart Cities Award Contest. This year’s best proposals range from the use of Integrated Command and Control Centres in governance or in response to Covid-19, enhancing safety and security of citizens, intelligent traffic management, innovative use of open spaces, enhancement of urban environment, innovations in the improvement of urban mobility,
smart water management, waste-to-energy generation and many others,” Union housing affairs minister Hardeep Puri said.
There are a total of five award categories in ISAC 2020. Winners for three of these five categories were decided through a two-stage submission process. Stage-I involved an overall assessment of the city’s performance.
Stage-I submissions were evaluated by a Technical Support Team and 71 Smart Cities qualified for Stage-II.
“Indore has been a forerunner among the Smart Cities in the past year...It is implementing projects worth Rs 5,099.6 crore under the Smart Cities Mission of which Rs 4,711.6 crore is dedicated to the projects within the ABD [area based development]. Improvement of city identity through revival of old heritage structures, development of public and commercial places, and waste management within the ABD area is an approach well received by the people of Indore. The Smart City has made visible gains in a timebound manner – exhibiting strong local support for the smart city projects undertaken,” the ministry said.
At present, 69 Smart Cities have developed and operationalised their ICCCs in the country. These function as war-rooms for Covid management, and along with other smart infrastructure developed under the mission, have helped cities in fighting the pandemic through information dissemination, improving communication, predictive analysis and supporting effective management.
These are being developed across all 100 Smart Cities of the country, the ministry said.