Karimnagar makes grade in the Smart City Challenge

City’s detailed project for providing amenities to citizens is accepted by Union Urban Development Ministry achieves sixth place in the country

Remarkable achievement: TRS party corporators and Municipal employees celebrating the Central Government announcement of selection of Karimnagar in Smart City list in Karimnagar on Friday.

The Municipal Corporation of Karimnagar (MCK) has been added in the Centre’s Smart Cities Mission programme along with 30 other cities in the country on Friday.

Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu had announced the list in New Delhi on Friday. Among the 30 cities which were included in the Smart Cities Mission programme, the Karimnagar city secured sixth place in the country.

Karimnagar, the epicentre of Telangana statehood movement and third biggest city in the newly formed State, was recommended to Union Smart Cities Mission programme by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao instead of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in December 2015.

Later, Karimnagar MP B. Vinod Kumar, took the initiative to get Karimnagar city included in the Smart City Challenge. He also ensured that the Centre sanctioned ₹2 crore for preparing detailed project report by the MCK authorities. The project report, submitted to the Centre, proposes the development of Karimnagar into a Smart City with an estimated outlay of ₹ 1878 crore. Under the Smart Cities Mission programme, Karimnagar city would be developed on all fronts to provide better amenities to the people of the town. As part the area-based development programme, the authorities would develop the busy commercial Tower Circle area, modernization of vegetable market, marketyard and RTC bus station complex.

Tourism development

In order to promote tourism in the town, it was decided to take up Manair Riverfront along the shores of Lower Manair Dam (LMD) Reservoir. It was also decided to reinvent urban mobility, creation of good best arterial and internal roads and footpaths., open parking, junction improvements, 24x7 water supply, cycle tracks and autostands, among others.

As the city had been included in the Smart Cities Mission programme, the project implementation would be done by a special purpose vehicle (SPV). The SPV will plan, appraise, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate Smart city development projects. The SPV would be headed by a full-time CEO.