West Bengal government to meet 59 municipality chiefs to select smart city nominations
Banerjee has also summoned private builders who have expressed interest in developing theme cities in the state for a meeting on July 10.
By Tasmayee Laha Roy, ET Bureau | Updated:
KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal state government has called for a meeting on July 7 with chairpersons of 59 municipalities to discuss and provide guidelines for the NDA government’s Smart Cities mission.
Banerjee has also summoned private builders who have expressed interest in developing theme cities in the state for a meeting on July 10.
Debashish Sen, principal secretary, department of urban development will brief the 59 municipalities on how to compete for being a part of Narendra Modi’s Smart Cities mission.
The PM had officially launched the mission late last month and the first stage of the city challenge competition for inclusion of cities and towns in the Smart Cities mission has started in which the union urban development ministry has asked state governments to nominate names of cities and towns by July 31, 2015.
Given the density of urban population, West Bengal has been allocated four smart cities.
"The 59 civic bodies will be given a certain platform where they would furnish vital information about their city like details of water supply, tax collection, sewage and other administration issues. On the basis of this, each of the civic body would be asked to carry out a self-appraisal process. Four of these 59 bodies with the best scores will be given a go ahead to become smart cities," said Sen.
Sen is also expecting a good number of investors to be a part of the July 10 meeting as the state authority has been receiving fair amount of interest from them. He said that the state government will provide all sorts of assistance to builders who develop theme townships given they adhere to the guideline of earmarking 25 per cent of the project to provide housing to the poor.
The cities planned around Siliguri will have the theme of education and health, one at Kalyani will be around analytics and IT while those at Dumurjola at Howrah and near Bolpur will have a theme of sports and culture. The smart city around Baruipur would be for the elderly.
Banerjee has also summoned private builders who have expressed interest in developing theme cities in the state for a meeting on July 10.
Debashish Sen, principal secretary, department of urban development will brief the 59 municipalities on how to compete for being a part of Narendra Modi’s Smart Cities mission.
The PM had officially launched the mission late last month and the first stage of the city challenge competition for inclusion of cities and towns in the Smart Cities mission has started in which the union urban development ministry has asked state governments to nominate names of cities and towns by July 31, 2015.
Given the density of urban population, West Bengal has been allocated four smart cities.
"The 59 civic bodies will be given a certain platform where they would furnish vital information about their city like details of water supply, tax collection, sewage and other administration issues. On the basis of this, each of the civic body would be asked to carry out a self-appraisal process. Four of these 59 bodies with the best scores will be given a go ahead to become smart cities," said Sen.
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Sen is also expecting a good number of investors to be a part of the July 10 meeting as the state authority has been receiving fair amount of interest from them. He said that the state government will provide all sorts of assistance to builders who develop theme townships given they adhere to the guideline of earmarking 25 per cent of the project to provide housing to the poor.
The cities planned around Siliguri will have the theme of education and health, one at Kalyani will be around analytics and IT while those at Dumurjola at Howrah and near Bolpur will have a theme of sports and culture. The smart city around Baruipur would be for the elderly.
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PM Modi had announced his vision to set up 100 smart cities across the country soon after his government was sworn into power mid last year. Since then a race has been on among cities to land on the list that the ministry of urban development is compiling.
The 100 smart cities mission intends to promote adoption of smart solutions for efficiency use of available assets, resources and infrastructure.
TOI explains what these smart cities are how they will work:
Representative picture of GIFT smart city
PM Modi had announced his vision to set up 100 smart cities across the country soon after his government was sworn into power mid last year. Since then a race has been on among cities to land on the list that the ministry of urban development is compiling.
The 100 smart cities mission intends to promote adoption of smart solutions for efficiency use of available assets, resources and infrastructure.
TOI explains what these smart cities are how they will work:
Representative picture of GIFT smart city
