Maha Govt accords top priority to develop 10 smart cities

Development to be monitored at the Chief Minister level; givt to spend Rs 5,000 cr in phases

The BJP-led government in Maharashtra has prepared an action plan for the development of Mumbai, Nagpur, Thane, Navi Mumbai,Pune, Nashik, Amravati, Solapur, Kalyan Dombivli and Aurangabad as smart cities. These are part of 98 cities announced by the Centre today to be developed as smart cities.

Besides, the selection of these cities is also crucial as the election to the civic bodies from these cities are slated to begin from October-November onwards.

Maharashtra minister of state for urban development Ranjit Patil told Business Standard ''The government will accord top priority for the development of these 10 cities as smart cities in the state. The development will be monitored as the level of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. The state government will indicate resource tie ups under the state level action plan which will pave way for the central funding. The government plans to spend Rs 5,000 crore in phases for the development of 10 smart cities. Of the Rs 100 crore per city, nearly Rs 50 crore will be funded by the local civic body and the state government while the balance Rs 50 crore will come from the Centre.''

The state government last month signed MoU with CISCO on the smart cities project, starting with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s home town of Nagpur as the pilot project.Fadnavis hoped that CISCO's experience to develop Barcelona as a smart city will be very useful. The chief minister clarified that no two cities will be identical.