The State government will have to raise over Rs 25,000 crore to fund the development of eight out of the 10 smart cities that it had proposed under the central government’s 100 smart cities project.
The 10 Maharashtra cities picked under the Smart Cities mission are Amravati, Aurangabad, Kalyan-Dombivli, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Solapur and Thane. Earlier this year, the government included Pune and Solapur in the first list of 20 cities that would receive priority funding of Rs. 500 crore over five years.
According to a senior official in the urban development department, it was decided at a meeting held in Delhi on Friday that the State government would be responsible for raising funds for the other eight city projects that are to go ahead as planned.
At an event in Kalyan-Dombivili on Friday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the state government is moving ahead with a plan to develop all the selected 10 cities under the central government’s smart cities scheme, even though only two had received priority funding thus far. A tweet from the CM’s office said, “Success of #SmartCity depends on Smart Planning. State will give all help & support to raise funds to implement this smart planning.”
Despite Kalyan-Dombivili not making it to the first list of 20 smart cities, it is hosting a two-day summit to brainstorm about the way forward, outlining the government’s commitment to making the smart cities project work. The event will be attended by mayors of all the smart cities, and state secretaries.
