BHUBANESWAR: The State government has completed 23 projects worth Rs 1,114.29 crore for the development of Bhubaneswar and Rourkela as smart cities under the Smart Cities Mission (SCM). This was informed to the Lok Sabha by the Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development Kaushal Kishore on Thursday.
In a written reply to a query by BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, the Minister said the two cities have tendered out 69 projects worth Rs 4,918.54 crore out of which, work orders were issued for 56 projects worth Rs 3,588.39 crore.
Kishore said Bhubaneswar Smart City has tendered out 28 projects worth Rs 3,538.94 crore of which work orders have been issued for 25 projects worth Rs 2,330.62 crore. So far, 16 projects worth Rs 873.56 crore have been completed. The Union Minister said the Centre has released Rs 645 crore for the two smart cities in the State of which Rs 588 crore (91 per cent) has already been utilised.
Replying to another question by Sarangi, the Minister said there is no proposal by the government for including more cities under SCM. The Centre had launched SCM on June 25, 2015 for development of 100 cities as smart cities. A total of 5,151 projects worth Rs 2,05,018 crore were proposed as part of the smart city proposals.