Centre approves 464 projects costing of Rs 14,124 crore for 8 smart cities in NE

After reviewing the progress of urban missions in the eight north eastern states in Guwahati on Thursday, Union minister of state for housing and urban affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri said that, the Centre has selected eight smart cities in the region and 464 projects have been approved for these cities so far.

“24 of the 464 projects costing of Rs 3,706.05 crore, which have been identified as impactful projects including Brahmaputra river front development project in Guwahati with cost of Rs 826 crore, Ropeway project in Kohima with cost of Rs 409 crore are being taken up expeditiously. Presently 5 projects costing of Rs 95.5 crore are under execution. Ministry of urban development provides an assistance of Rs 500 crore to each smart city over a period of five years,” Puri said.

The selected smart cities of the NE region are – Guwahati (Assam), Imphal (Manipur), Agartala (Tripura), Namchi (Sikkim), Kohima (Nagaland), Passighat (Arunachal Pradesh), Aizawl (Mizoram) and Gangtok (Sikkim).

The union minister said that, 12 towns of the region have been included in the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation for Urban Transformation (AMRUT) for providing water taps to all households besides improving water supply to the normative level of 135 litres per capita per day.

“Under AMRUT, the Centre supports 90 per cent of the project cost in NE states. 12 NE towns included in Amrut are – Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Nagaon and Silchar (Assam), Imphal (Manipur), Shillong (Meghalaya), Aizawl (Mizoram), Dimapur and Kohima (Nagaland), Gangtok (Sikkim) and Agartala (Tripura). The entire state's annual action plan for the NE states envisaging an investment of Rs 1506.62 crore has been approved and work for 43 projects costing of Rs 149.31 crore has commenced and 9 projects costing of Rs 5.93 crore have been completed,” the union minister said.

Puri further said that, 42 towns in NE states have become Open Defection Free (ODF) and 588 community and public toilets, 20237 individual households toilets have been constructed under the Swach Bharat Mission.

“731 wards in the region have facilities for 100 per cent door to door collection of solid waste and 80 per cent wards in Mizoram have adopted it,” Puri said.

After reviewing the progress of several projects, the union minister has released totaling of Rs 182 crore to the NE states.

The minister has released Rs 128.53 crore to Tripura, Rs 22.89 crore to Mizoram, Rs 18.13 crore to Assam, Rs 5.35 crore to Sikkim, Rs 2.98 crore to Nagaland, Rs 2.73 crore to Meghalaya, Rs 1.65 crore to Arunachal Pradesh.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)