Agartala tops smart city rankings in Northeast region

The Tripura capital tops in the smart city rankings among ten cities of eight northeastern states, an official release said.

According to a state government release, as per the Smart City rankings released earlier this month by the Centre, Agartala was at the 56th place – up from the 74th position – amongst 100 smart cities in India.

The over 185-year-old city is followed by Namchi (Sikkim) at the 59th position, Aizawl at the 75th, Kohima at the 79th, Gangtok at the 80th, Guwahati at the 83rd, Itanagar at the 89th, Shillong at the 92nd, Imphal at the 93rd and Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh) at the 98th position.

The release said that the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry Secretary reviewed the progress of the Smart City projects of the northeastern states on July 24. Agartala Smart City has taken up 80 projects at a cost of Rs 1,479 crore for all-round development of the capital which has a population of around five lakh.

It said that 100 per cent of projects have been tendered by the Smart City Mission team. The Centre government has sanctioned Rs 196 crore, while the state government has released Rs 50 crore to the Agartala Smart City Ltd. So far, Rs 72 crore has been spent under the project.

Following the instructions of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, one of the first projects taken up by Agartala Smart City Mission was to reduce the water stagnation problem in the capital city during the monsoon. An Integrated Command and Control Centre with a network of many CCTV cameras have been put in place for live monitoring of flood-related measures in Agartala city and its outskirts.

Other projects coming up under Agartala Smart City are the widening of 14 important roads, the four-laning of the airport road, and the development of Howrah river bank and Ujjayanta Palace avenue.

Then king Krishna Kishore Manikya (r 1830-1849) shifted the state capital from old Agartala to its present location of Agartala. Considered to be one of the oldest municipal bodies in India, Agartala Municipality was established by the then king Birchandra Manikya in 1871 while the princely ruler in 1936-37 had prepared a "Masterplan" for Agartala which is said to be one of the first modern examples of urban planning..