Indore has bagged the best “National Smart City Award” for exemplary performance among the 100 smart cities in the fourth edition since the Central government started the contest. Surat and Agra have emerged as the second and third winners among cities.
The results for the fourth edition of India Smart Cities Award Contest (ISAC) for 2022 were announced on Friday. Due to Covid-19 pandemic, the results for 2021 could not be announced last year.
President Draupadi Murmu will felicitate the winners of ISAC 2022 awards on 27th September 2023 at Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
Among states, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have emerged at the first and second best performers respectively while Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have jointly bagged the third slot. Among the Union Territories, Chandigarh has got the highest crore.
The NDMC area in Delhi, which falls under the Central government and is one of the municipal areas selected for Smart City, has not bagged any award under 12 different categories. Sources said the NDMC did not even participate in the contest.
The Smart Cities Mission (SCM) was launched on June 25 in 2015 and is aimed at providing core infrastructure, clean and sustainable environment and a decent quality of life to their citizens through the application of ‘smart solutions’.
Of the total proposed projects under SCM, 6,041 (76%) projects worth Rs 1.11 lakh crore have been completed and the remaining 1,894 projects worth Rs 60,095 crore will be completed by next June.
All the selected 100 smart cities have set up the Integrated Command and Control Centers (ICCC), which work as the brain and nervous system for city operations, using technology for urban management. The urban services have significantly improved in diverse fields like crime tracking, safety and security of citizens, transport management, solid waste management, water supply and disaster management, the housing and urban affairs ministry said.
The selected smart cities have taken up projects across diverse sectors related to mobility, energy, water, sanitation, solid waste management, vibrant public spaces, social infrastructure and smart governance.
For instance, in smart mobility, 1,174 projects have been completed worth Rs 24,047 crore and another 434 projects are ongoing worth Rs 15,940 crore. In smart energy, 573 projects have been completed and 94 are ongoing.
In Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), more than 1,162 projects have been completed worth Rs 34,751 crore and another 333 projects worth Rs 18,716 crore are ongoing. The 100 Smart cities have developed more than 1,063 public spaces worth Rs 6,403 crore and another 260 projects worth Rs 5,470 crore are ongoing. Further, 180 Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects worth Rs 8,228 crore have been completed and another 27 are ongoing.
652 projects have been completed related to economic infrastructure such as market redevelopment and start-up incubation centers and another 267 projects are ongoing. In the social infrastructure sector (health, education, housing etc.), 679 projects have been completed and 153 are ongoing.