The Centre on Friday declared the Smart Cities Awards 2020 in which Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Surat (Gujarat) won the award jointly for holistic development. In a first, states were also awarded for the overall performance of their smart cities; in this category, Uttar Pradesh emerged on top, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry evaluated smart cities across a gamut of themes like social aspects, governance, culture, urban environment, sanitation, economy, built environment, water and urban mobility before finalising the winners. The awards commemorated six years of the Union government’s three initiatives to spur urban development: Smart Cities Mission (SCM), Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U).

Chandigarh took top honours among union territories, while Indore won the Innovative Idea Award for its ‘Carbon Credit Financing Mechanism’. Ahmedabad bagged the Smart Cities Leadership Award, followed by Varanasi and Ranchi in the second and third spots respectively.

According to the ministry, under PMAY (Urban), about 1.12 crore houses have so far been sanctioned for beneficiaries, of which more than 83 lakh homes are grounded and over 50 lakh completed. Around 105 lakh household tap water connections and 78 lakh sewer or septage connections have so far been provided under AMRUT and in convergence with other schemes, it added.

News Source : TOI