HYDERABAD: Warangal, the second biggest city in Telangana State, found its place in the second list of smart cities under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Smart City Mission’ on Tuesday.
Warangal is the first city in Telangana state to be selected for the project. The city had failed to make it to the list of smart cities announced by the Union government in January this year. Warangal topped the second list by improving the quality of living by 13 percent.
The Union government had released the first list of 20 smart cities in January this year. However, no city in Telangana could make it to the first list. Warangal ranked 21st in the first list. The state government had proposed Hyderabad and Warangal for selection under the Smart Cities scheme. However, the state government later urged the Centre to remove Hyderabad from the list and include Karimnagar in its place. So, Hyderabad also failed to find a place in the first list of 20 smart cities.
After the announcement of the first list, Telangana municipal administration officials submitted a revised plan for Warangal. This helped Warangal win the fast-track competition by improving its quality parameters by 13 per cent. The Union government had informed the state in January that Warangal will be considered for the second list. Sources said that 23 states and Union Territories, which missed the chance in the first list, would figure in the second list of 23 cities. The remaining 57 cities would be named sometime after June.
The state government had submitted a draft plan for development of Warangal corporation at an estimated cost of `2,600 crore under the smart cities scheme.
“Now that Warangal has found place in the list of smart cities, we will submit a detailed project report,” an official in the department of municipal administration and urban development told Express.
According to sources, the Centre will release `100 crore every year for the development of each city selected under the smart cities scheme and the State has to make a matching contribution of `100 crore.
A special purpose vehicle will be constituted for spending `200 crore every year for the implementation of the smart city project, sources told Express.
Karimnagar awaits Centre’s nod
Sources said that though the state government had proposed Karimnagar for smart cities scheme in place of Hyderabad, the Centre has not considered the proposal till now.
“Once the Centre accepts the proposal on Karimnagar, we will prepare a plan and submit the same to the Centre,” sources said.