Indore, Surat, Agra ranked as India’s top 3 Smart Cities

Indore has won the best National Smart City Award with Surat being ranked second followed by Agra in the third position. The central government announced the India Smart Cities Awards for 2022 on Friday.

Madhya Pradesh has won the best State Award and Tamil Nadu has been rated second. Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have been jointly ranked third.

Chandigarh has been ranked the number one in the Union territory category.

Among the other cities, Coimbatore has won the top rank in the Built Environment category while Ahmedabad has been placed first in the Culture category. Pimpri Chinchwad has been awarded the first prize for Governance while Chandigarh has been rated best for Mobility.

Indore which was adjudged India’s cleanest city for the sixth time in a row in October this year has also bagged the top rank in “sanitation” among the smart cities.

Of the total 845 applications received under the five awards categories, 66 final winners have been identified – 35 in Project Award, 6 in Innovation Award, 13 in National/Zonal City Award, 5 in State/UT Award and 7 in Partner Award categories.

The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said that 66 winners in different categories were announced on Friday and the awards will be presented by President Droupadi Murmu at a function in Indore on September 27.

Smart Cities Mission launched on 25 June 2015, is aimed at providing core infrastructure, clean and sustainable environment and a decent quality of life to their citizens through the application of ‘smart solutions’.

As many as 100 cities have been taken up under the project aimed to bring about a paradigm shift in the practice of urban development in the country. Of the total proposed projects under smart cities mission, 6,041(76%) projects worth Rs 1,10,635 crore have been completed and the remaining 1,894 projects worth Rs 60,095 crore will be completed by 30 June 2024.