Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath promises to develop cities in 'smart' list

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday thanked the Centre for including three more cities in the state under the Smart City Mission and promised to make every effort to provide world class facilities.

Jhansi, Allahabad and Aligarh have found place in the latest list of 30 new cities announced by Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu in Delhi as part of the government's Smart City Mission, launched in 2015.

State capital Lucknow, Varansi, Kanpur and Agra were included in the list before. Development works are already in the last phase in these cities, an official press release said.

Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Naidu, the chief minister also assured that his government would make every effort to promptly carry out works for the development of the cities selected under the Smart City project, the release said.

Efforts were on to get five more cities - Meerut, Rae Bareli, Ghaziabad, Saharanpur and Rampur - in the list, Adityanath said.

He added that his government would not tolerate laxity in development works under the project.

These works, when completed, will bring qualitative improvement in the condition of these cities and also provide world class facilities to people residing there, Adityanath said.

The Smart City Mission was launched with the aim of transforming 100 Indian cities by 2019-20. The Centre provides Rs 500 crore to each city over a period of five years for implementing various projects.

Announcing the new list of smart cities in Delhi, Naidu said 45 cities contested for the 40 available smart city slots but only 30 were selected to ensure their feasibility and workable plans.