BHUBANESWAR: Officials and representatives of five municipal corporations and four municipalities met at State Urban Development Authority office here on Friday to chalk out plans for inclusion of respective towns in the Smart City project and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) programme.
During a three-hour workshop and training, the contenders were apprised of the guidelines laid down by Union Ministry of Urban Development for cities to participate in Smart City Challenge (SCC) and AMRUT programme which is likely to be held in August.
While two cities from Odisha will be getting Central grant for Smart Cities, 19 towns in the State will be covered under AMRUT programme. Urban planning experts from consultancy firm Deloitte sensitised ULB members and officials to draw a roadmap for claiming their stakes for the projects.
Mayors, deputy mayors, commissioners, additional commissioners and engineers of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur and Rourkela municipal corporations and municipal chairpersons, deputy chairpersons and executive officers of Puri, Balasore, Bhadrak and Baripada participated in the workshop.
The ULBs, which are interested for these projects, have been given a deadline of July 31 to submit their detailed project reports (DPRs) on urban governance and annual performance. The State Government would then scrutinise and select the places on basis of a rating system specified by the Government of India (GoI).
As per guidelines, the civic body should be capable to raise its own fund to the tune of `50 crore for next five years and spend `200 crore every year to participate in SCC, sources in State Urban Development Department.
Financial capability and planning on how to implement the scheme will be a major criterion for shortlisting cities and towns. The core aspects of urban infrastructure for a city to qualify as a Smart City would be water supply, sewerage, urban drainage and city transportation.
Besides, the GoI guidelines have specified that 2.5 per cent of the Central grant for a smart city has to be utilised for developing children’s park and playground. “The DPRs will be ready by July 31 as we have to recommend names of two bigger and 19 smaller cities to the Centre for Smart City and AMRUT programme,” an official of Urban Development Department said.