Smart city mission led to comprehensive urban planning: Naidu

Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said the smart city mission has triggered inclusive and comprehensive urban planning in the country.
Addressing a business conclave at Shri Ram College of Commerce here, the minister stressed that the smart city development is "not elitist" and the mission has brought about a paradigm shift wherein cities approach the challenges differently rather than doing different things.
Naidu said the mission has been so designed to promote inclusive development benefitting all sections of society besides promoting sustainable urban development practices in context of citizens being "starved of breathing and living spaces".
Asserting that mission is progressing well, Naidu said that since the announcement of first batch of 20 cities for smart city development on January 28, 2015, these mission cities have moved quickly towards implementation of the projects.

By June this year or within two years of the launch of the mission, he said a total of 510 projects with a total investment of Rs 20,669 crore would take off the ground.
Stating that awarding and execution of remaining projects would pick up further momentum, Naidu said that the mission is on course and visible impact will be felt soon.

Naidu said that moving away from archaic ways of urban governance, cities are now vying for credit ratings for mobilisation of resources through municipal bonds, reflecting on their keenness to think and act differently.
He said of the 97 smart cities, 89 have initiated this process of which 70 have completed it and 26 of them have already been given credit rating.

Total of 44 cities, including 25 Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) cities, have so far got credit ratings, Naidu added.