Amid resistance from the Opposition, the ShivSena, BJP-led Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) approved t he proposal f or Mumbai to enter into the Smart City challenge during the general body meeting on Monday.
The state government has sent a list of 10 cities – Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivli, Pune, Pimpri- Chinchwad, Solapur, Nagpur, Amravati, Nashik and Aurangabad – that will be developed into smart cities to the Centre. The final decision on the cities to get the Smart City tag will be taken by the Centre.
The chosen cities have to prepare a vision document on how they plan to go ahead with the project. They need to have approvals from local bodies to enter the challenge and submit the vision document.
While the Opposition said they are not against the project, t hey are skeptical about the BMC. “We are the richest municipal body with utilisation of funds less than 40%. How are we going to utilise Rs100-crore from Centre? The BMC has no vision plan. Instead of putting forth an urgent proposal, the administration should have made a presentation. This is just to gain brownie points from the BJP- l ed gover nment at the Centre,” said Rais Shaikh, group leader, Samajwadi Party.
According to the Centre’s criteria, the initiatives will have to be city- specific and citizen- centric. “Everyone wants Mumbai to be a Smart City, but the administration has no vision plan to enter the challenge. I will not be shocked if we do not even make it,” said Asif Zakaria, a Congress corporator.
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