Seven cities to be declared Smart Cities by end of 2022

NEW DELHI: Surat, Udaipur, Bhopal Indore, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar and Varanasi are the first set of cities to be awarded ‘smart cities’ status by the end of 2022.

The Smart Cities Mission was launched in June 2015, aiming to modernise 100 smart cities with eco-friendly high technology solutions. This mission is supposed to be concluded in June 2023. Among the seven smart cities, Bhopal is in the lead with a 92 per cent project completion rate, followed by Surat with 82 per cent, Udaipur at 78 per cent, Bhubaneswar at 76 per cent, Indore at 70 per cent, Varanasi at 70 per cent and Ahmedabad at 70 per cent.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, will primarily focus on 40 cities, which are at the bottom of the table due to non-completion of projects in the concerned cities.