U’khand govt to shell out ₹500 crore for making Doon a Smart City
After three failed attempts, the state capital finally made it to the Smart City list in the results of the third round announced by the Union ministry of urban development on June 23
Following Dehradun’s selection in the third round of the Smart City race, the Uttarakhand government will have to shell out a whopping ₹500 crore to match an equal amount that will be provided by the Centre to the hill state for the project.
After three failed attempts, the state capital finally made it to the Smart City list in the results of the third round announced by the Union ministry of urban development on June 23.
Dehradun’s proposal was ranked 16th among the 30 cities selected in the third round of the Centre’s flagship project that aims to develop 100 self-sustained townships with well-networked infrastructure and information technology.
Post the selection, the central government provides ₹500 for each of the selected cities, while the states concerned are required to contribute a matching grant.
This may turn out to be a challenging task for the state government which is already reeling under a debt of over ₹40,000 crore.
Urban development minister Madan Kaushik said the state government has started gearing up to arrange the funds for the project. “We have to contribute ₹500 crore and we’ll be making efforts to arrange it on a priority basis as Smart City is a very important project for us,” he told Hindustan Times on Sunday.
Underlining that the state government will shell out the investment from its budget, Kaushik said the government would be generating funds for it through its own revenue resources.
“Besides that, we will be converging projects worth around ₹234 crore with existing (government) schemes while works amounting to around ₹177 crore will be conducted through public private partnership (PPP) mode,” he said.
Notably, just 354 hectares or 5% of the city’s total area has been earmarked for development under the Smart City project.
Some of the key projects to be undertaken include Clock Tower heritage restoration, Astley Hall rejuvenation with façade improvement in colonial structure, public transport with 30 electric buses and 200 e-rickshaws, pan-city mobile app and smart model roads among others.
Smart City: Total investment plan:
Clean City: ₹4.6 crore
Sustainable transport: ₹265 crore
Healthy and safe citizens: ₹139 crore
City aesthetics: ₹102.8 crore
City core infra: ₹464.3 crore
Total Smart City Capital: ₹1407.5 crore