Dimapur | September 20
Morung Express News
Having missed the bus twice, Nagaland State capital Kohima’s tryst for the ‘smart city’ tag came to fruition on Tuesday when it finally managed to find a place in a new list of smart cities. The state capital was among the list of 27 cities announced by the Minister for Urban Development, M Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi on September 20.
Kohima had missed the first round of the competition in January and also narrowly missed a Fast Track competition held in May, 2016.
Consequently, the state government had submitted an upgraded proposal to the Ministry in June this year. In the second round of the competition, Kohima was selected in a competition among 63 cities.
“Competition based 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 Pancity solutions,” Naidu said announcing the list.
According to a PIB release, the Minister informed that the new 27 smart cities have proposed an investment of Rs.66, 883 crore under smart city plans including Rs.42, 524 crore under Area Based Development and another Rs.11, 379 crore for technology based Pancity 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 crore, he said. In the order of merit, Amritsar tops the list of 27 new smart cities. Among the NE states, Namchi in Sikkim and Kohima made it to the smart city list for the first time at 18 and 24 position respectively.
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.
With the new list, smart city plans are now spread over 27 States and Union Territories. The Minister further informed that the next round of competition to select the remaining 40 cities would begin in January next year.
A Red Letter Day: CM Zeliang
Meanwhile, welcoming the selection of Kohima in the 27 smart cities list, Nagaland Chief Minister, TR Zeliang today said September 20 was a ‘Red Letter Day’ for Nagaland.
A release from the Chief Minister’s Office maintained that the 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, he “renewed his vigor” and had been urging the department concerned to take up the matter on a war footing, and to rectify the short comings which prevented the state capital from getting the required points, it added.
The Chief Minister who is presently in New Delhi had rung up the Department concerned and had personally conveyed the information and congratulated the officials for their hard work which has finally bore fruit, it said.
