India: The state of Uttar Pradesh has named 13 cities for development as Smart Cities. Apart from state capital Lucknow, seven cities from western UP—Ghaziabad, Meerut, Aligarh, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Bareilly, Agra, and Rampur—are being considered as Smart Cities under guidelines prescribed by the Centre. Union cabinet has set aside Rs48,000 crore for developing 100 smart cities across 21 districts over the next five years. UP has the highest share of cities, 13, followed closely by Tamil Nadu with 12 cities and 10 of Maharashtra.
The list was finalised by a state-level committee formed under the Smart City Mission. The cities were assessed on the basis of functional toilets in the city, online grievance redressal system, monthly e-magazine, project-wise revenue generated out of municipal budget spend information, penalty imposed for delay in service delivery, internal revenue generated during the last three years, etc.
Source: Times of India
