Ghaziabad could not make it to the list of 20 cities of the
smart city race that was announced by the central government. The city was in
fact ranked at 87 among all the cities which submitted their proposals to the
union urban development ministry that is to be developed under the mission.
The list of chosen cities includes Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad,
New Delhi area, Coimbatore,
Bhubaneswar, Davangere, Solapur, Jaipur, Ludhiana,
Chennai, Bhopal, Kochi, Vishakhapatnam, Udaipur, Jabalpur, Guwahati, Indore,
Belgaum and Kakinada. There is no city from Uttar Pradesh that has cleared the obstacle
to qualify for the development as a smart city.
The cities that have scored between 55 & 78 points have
qualified the final round and made it to the smart city list. Though
authorities in Ghaziabad are not sure about the parameters or reasons in which
Ghaziabad scored less, also, the points secured by the city are not clear.
Although the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation is hopeful that they will make it
to the second phase of selection as they are ready to submit fresh proposals.
In the NCR, Ghaziabad was selected among the 12 cities that
were selected from Uttar Pradesh that will be developed under the smart city
scheme. There were a total of 97 proposals from across the nation that were
sent to the union urban development ministry.
Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation sent their proposal on
December 15, 2015 with an estimation of Rs 1,120 crore that will be spent on
various developmental and infrastructural works. The planned draft was examined
by the Regional Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies in Lucknow before
sending to the Urban Development Ministry.
