Progress in smart city projects in Guwahati, Dharamshala not satisfactory

The housing and urban affairs ministry was concerned over "unsatisfactory" progress in smart city projects in Guwahati in Assam and Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, according to an official. In a review of smart city projects by the ministry, it was flagged that these two cities were lagging in implementation of projects under the Centre's Smart City Mission, the ministry official added. It was also decided that ministry would approach these cities to find out the "bottlenecks" with an aim for speedy implementation of the projects, the official said. Cities in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were found to be "performing well" under the mission, while those in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra needed to speed up the implementation process, the official said. Under the mission, 90 cities have been selected so far by the government and each city will get Rs 500 crore as central assistance for implementing various projects. Reviewing the progress of the Smart City Mission on August 30, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the challenge before everyone was now to ensure implementation and expeditious completion of the work in the 90 identified cities.