Bengaluru: Urban Development Minister Byrathi Basavaraj said that the royal city of Mysuru would be included in Smart City scheme as it is eligible for the project.
“We have written to the Centre seeking inclusion of Mysuru, Kalaburagi, Ballari and Vijayapura in the list of smart cities and I have personally held consultations with Union Urban Affairs Minister Hardip Singh Puri during my recent visit to Lucknow,” he said.
The Minister was speaking to reporters in Bengaluru recently after reviewing the progress of smart cities work. He said that the projects were on track despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Smart City is a unique programme that has been implemented in the country for the first time. It was conceived soon after Modi Government took office in May 2014 and it was announced in June 2015. The idea was to use technology to introduce ease of living and inclusive and sustainable development.
Mysuru had missed out an opportunity of development while seven other cities in Karnataka like Bengaluru, Tumakuru, Belagavi, Shivamogga, Davanagere, Hubballi-Dharwad and Mangaluru were seeing large-scale development.
Though Mysuru was eligible to be a Smart City, it lost out as it did not fully utilise the 80 percent of JnNURM funds. Also, the Mysuru City Corporation failed to do a local audit from 2007 and this deprived the city of a slot under Smart Cities Mission, sources said.
At present, the Smart City works are being taken up in Bengaluru, Shivamogga, Mangaluru, Tumakuru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Davanagere and Belagavi. A total of Rs. 855 crore had been spent on Smart City projects in Karnataka till February 2020. In this period, Rs. 2,646 crore had been spent, Minister Basavaraj explained.
This post was published on January 27, 2022 6:37 pm