Pondy Gears Up For Smart City Project.

Even as expectations are high in Puducherry of being selected for Smart City project of the Ministry of Urban Development (MUD), the wait is on for the formulation of detailed guidelines by the Ministry for implementation of the project. Once the Ministry comes out with the guidelines, a project report will be drawn up and submitted to the Ministry, said Chief Town Planner S Raghunathan.

The Ministry, which is gearing up to roll out its '100 smart cities' scheme across the country, is likely to finalise the guidelines for the Rs. 48,000 crore mega project shortly, he said. The NDA government’s flagship project got Union Cabinet’s approval at the fag end of April, paving the way for the Ministry to work out details for the selection of cities for the project. Union Minister of urban development Venkiah Naidu had said that the design and creation should be 'region-specific' and not a generalised concept as practised under JNNURM. The chosen cities would get a Central fund of Rs. 100 crore each year for 5 years.

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS