KARIMNAGAR: Karimnagar City now stands a chance to make it into the list of 100 Smart Cities with funding from the Smart City Mission.
Considering a request of the state government, the Union ministry of Urban Development, Smart Cities Division has included Karimnagar Municipal Corporation in place of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in the Smart Cities Challenge.
The High Power Steering Committee (HPSC) of the Smart City Mission has recommended competent authority to include KMC in the challenge.
Munish Kumar Garg, director of Smart Cities-I division, has communicated to the chief secretary of Telangana, that the request to include Karimnagar in the list has been accepted.
When the Centre asked states to send proposals for inclusion of cities of their choice in the Smart Cities Challenge, TS had proposed Hyderabad and Warangal Municipal Corporation for consideration.
Later, the state government decided to remove GHMC from the proposal as it felt the `100 crore financial package would not be sufficient to develop a mega city like Hyderabad.
Instead, the government requested the Centre to include Karimnagar municipality in the challenge and the same was accepted by the Union ministry for Urban Development.
Welcoming the move, Karimnagar MP B Vinod Kumar said that the Union Ministry of Urban Development has released `2 crore to prepare a detailed survey report (DSR) of Karimngar town, immediately after making the announcement on Thursday.
He urged the residents, mayor and corporators to join hands in developing Karimnagar.