Amid the coronavirus pandemic since last year, state has emerged as top performer under the Smart Cities mission’s India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC) 2020 followed by Madhya Pradesh and province. Among cities, Indore and Surat have adjudged joint winners for his or her overall performance in 2020. Among Union Territories, Chandigarh was ranked first. Under the smart cities leadership awards, Ahmedabad has won the smart cities leadership award; followed by Varanasi and Ranchi.
The Ministry of Housing and concrete Affairs (MoHUA) on Friday announced the awards to commemorate six years of the — Smart Cities Mission (SCM), Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and concrete Transformation (AMRUT) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U).
In the social aspects category, Tirupati won the award for the Health Benchmark for Municipal Schools while Bhubaneshwar adjudged as socially Smart Bhubaneswar. Tumakuru has bagged award for the digital library solution. within the culture category, Indore and Chandigrah has been declared as joint winners. Indore bagged the award for the conservation of heritage while Chandigarh for the Capitol Complex, Heritage Project. Gwalior got the third place for digital museum.
In the water category, Dehradun and Varanasi have adjudged as joint winners. Dehradun bagged the award in smart water metering water ATM and Varanasi won for the eco restoration of Assi river. Surat won Surat: Integrated and Sustainable installation System
This is the primary time when the ministry has given awards to states for the general performance of the smart cities. There are a complete of 5 award categories in ISAC 2020. Winners for 3 of those five categories were decided through a two-stage submission process.
“Of the overall proposed projects under Smart Cities Mission, 5,924 projects (115% by number) worth Rs 1,78,500 crore (87% by value) are tendered thus far, work orders are issued for five,236 projects (101% by number) worth Rs 1,46,125 crore (71% by value). 2,665 projects (52% by number) worth Rs 45,080 crore (22% by value) have also been fully completed and are operational (as on 23 June 2021),” the ministry said.
As on date, 70 Smart cities have developed and operationalised their Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs) within the country. These operational ICCCs functioned as war-rooms for COVID management, and together with other smart infrastructure developed under the mission, helped cities in fighting the pandemic through information dissemination, improving communication, predictive analysis and supporting effective management. These are being developed across all 100 Smart Cities of the country. As many as 310 Smart Road projects are completed and 459 Smart road projects are at tender/implementation stage.
