Surat and Indore have adjudged the top performer in Smart Cities project

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh has emerged as top performer under the Smart Cities mission’s India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC) 2020 followed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Among cities, Indore and Surat have adjudged joint winners for their 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 Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on Friday announced the awards to commemorate six years of the — Smart Cities Mission (SCM), Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Urban 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. In 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 Water Supply System

This is the first time when the ministry has given awards to states for the overall performance of the smart cities. There are a total of five award categories in ISAC 2020. Winners for three of these five categories were decided through a two-stage submission process.

“Of the total proposed projects under Smart Cities Mission, 5,924 projects (115% by number) worth Rs 1,78,500



crore (87% by value) have been tendered so far, work orders have been issued for 5,236 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) in the country. These operational ICCCs functioned as war-rooms for COVID management, and along 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 have been completed and 459 Smart road projects are at tender/implementation stage.

Under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT), 105 lakh household water tap connections and 78 lakh sewer/ sepatage connections have been provided under Mission and in convergence with other schemes. Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) capacity worth 1,240 MLD have been created, of which 907 MLD is being recycled/ reused. Another, 4,800 MLD STP capacity is under development. Through projects in drainage sector, 1,840 water logging pointshave been eliminated. 1,850 parks & green spaces (3,770 acre) added. 800 parks (1,600 acre) are in progress. 180 projects in non-motorized urban transport sector have been completed.

The ministry has claimed that PMAY (Urban), has created almost an estimated 689 crore person days of employment translating into around 246 lakh jobs and led to consumption of 370 Lakh MT of cement and 84 Lakh MT of steel.