The central government declared 66 winners of the fourth edition of the India Smart Cities Award Contest (ISAC) on Friday, which was launched in April 2022 at the Smart Cities-Smart Urbanisation event in Surat.
The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry on Friday named Indore the best city and Madhya Pradesh the best state in the Smart Cities Mission in its India Smart Cities Awards 2022.
Surat and Agra were named second and third respectively among cities and Tamil Nadu second in states, with the third prize for states shared by Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. While 66 winners in different categories were announced on Friday, the awards would be presented by President Droupadi Murmu at a ceremony in Indore on September 27.
The cities were selected based on their ranking in terms of progress of projects, project outcomes and presentations submitted for the awards.
“Congratulations to Madhya Pradesh for receiving the ‘Best State Award’ at #ISACAwards2022!7 cities of the state are developing multi-sectoral 779 projects worth ₹15,696 cr which are already providing Ease of Living to the citizens,” Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet.
Indore has topped the cleanliness rankings under the Swachh Bharat Mission, being named the cleanest city for the past six years in a row. Madhya Pradesh, too, won the tag of the cleanest tag in the 2022 Swachh Survekshan. In the Smart Cities awards, Indore had shared the first place with Surat last time.
Meanwhile, in the Smart Cities awards this time, Coimbatore’s project of model roads, restoration and renovation of lakes won the top award in the category of built environment, while Jabalpur won for its incubation centre in the economy category. Chandigarh’s public bike sharing and e-governance services won in the mobility and governance categories respectively. Chandigarh also won the overall award in the Union Territory category.
Under the Smart Cities Mission, which was launched in 2015, the 100 selected cities have completed 76% of the proposed projects worth Rs. 1.10 lakh crore, while the remaining projects worth Rs. 60,095 crore “will be completed by 30 June 2024”, a Ministry statement said. Earlier this year, the mission’s deadline was extended from June 30 this year to next year to allow all 100 cities to complete their projects.