'5,151 projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore identified in 100 Smart Cities,' reveals Puri

Union Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday addressed the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Webinar on Aatmanirbhar Bharat where he spoke about the exponential growth in the urban population which was moving towards smart cities. The Union Minister revealed that according to statistics, 40% of India's population was expected to live in our urban centres by 2030. "To cater to this growing urban population, India has to build 600 to 800 million sq m of urban space every year till 2030," said Hardeep Singh Puri. 

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Growth in urban population 

Hardeep Singh Puri stated that over 5000 projects worth more than 2 lakh crores had been identified across India's 100 smart cities and the Smart Cities Mission had already tendered 4,700 of them which was over 81% of the total projects proposed. 

Earlier, Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Nitin Gadkari had spoken about the shift in population from 'big cities' to 'smart cities' opining that with the emergence of smart villages across the country, employment and livelihood opportunities were growing. 

Earlier this year, the Central government released a report card of 100 selected smart cities on the basis of three categories - ease of living, municipal performance index and climate. The Smart Cities Mission completes five years in 2020. "We are using data to change lives. The government is ranking cities on the economy, sustainability and others. We have converted citizens' aspirations into our outcome," Smart Cities Mission Director Kunal Kumar told news agency PTI. According to the Census, the country's urban population was 37.7 crore (31 per cent) in 2011 and is projected to increase to 60 crores (40 per cent) by 2030. 

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(With Agency Inputs)