The tall claims of the Andhra Pradesh government notwith standing, the state may not get more than four smart cities.
The state government had recently proposed to develop 14 smart cities and three mega cities in the hope that the Centre will fund the project.
But sources said that this was unlikely and that smart cities may come up only in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Nellore. Incidentally, the former three are the ones that chief minister Chandrababu Naidu dreams of turning into mega cities.
A senior of ficial told media that though the AP government has demanded a lion's share in the Centre's smart cities pro gramme, it may not be a reality.
“It is not reason able to demand a 10 per cent share from the Centre, which wants to develop 100 smart cities across the country,“ the official pointed out.
According to sources, nearly Rs 7 lakh crore will be spent on 100 smart cities in the next seven years.
The concept of a smart city is wide, with a mix of industrial development and urbanisation with high quality governance to facilitate ease of business.Various other elements that would be incorporated into these cities include IT-enabled mechanism for transactions, energy efficient network, water and solid waste management facilities and quality public transport network.
Source: TimesOfIndia
