Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs (Independent Charge), Hardeep Singh Puri, in a webinar on Tuesday, mentioned that it has been expected that about 40 percent of the total population of the subcontinent would be living in urban areas in the year 2030. 

"To cater to a widespread urban population, India will have to build 600 to 800 million square meters of urban space by the year 2030," said Hardeep Singh Puri in a webinar on Atmanirbhar Bharat, organized by the Confederation of India Industries. 

Earlier, Housing and Urban Affairs minister H S Puri mentioned that "about 5,151 projects, valued at Rs two lakh crores, were identified in about 100 smart cities. As of today, the mission has tendered about 4,700 projects worth Rs 1,66,000 crores. This is about 81 percent of the total projects proposed."

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Smart city mission: What is all about?

The Smart City mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 25, 2015, to promote cities that provide its citizens with infrastructure, that would provide the people with a reasonable quality of life to all the residents of the cities, an environment which would be both clean and sustainable and where 'Smart Solutions' would apply.

The core values of the same are: water supply that would be adequate for all, assured electricity supply for all, proper facilities for sanitation which would include solid waste management, urban mobility and public transport which would be efficient for everyone, housing that everyone can afford, especially for the poor, IT connectivity, proper methods of governance, including e-governance for all the citizens, an environment which would be sustainable for all, safety and security of all the residents, especially that of women, children and the elderly and proper health and education facilities. The mission was aimed at covering 100 hundred cities, distributed among the States and UTs equally across the nation, in a total period of five years(from 2015-16 to 2019-20). 

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(With Inputs from ANI)

(Image Credits; ANI)