UP govt fast tracks Rs 10,000-cr urban infra projects

The Uttar Pradesh state government has expedited urban infrastructure projects worth more than Rs 10,000 crore across ten smart cities. Of the 542 infrastructure projects supported by both the Central and state governments, with a total worth of Rs 10,124 crore, 343 projects have been completed at a cost of Rs 4,757 crore. Recently, the Chief Minister's Office directed the concerned departments to accelerate the remaining projects' completion. These projects are spread across various cities such as Lucknow, Agra, Bareli, Varanasi, Moradabad, Prayagraj, Saharanpur, Aligarh, Kanpur, Jhansi, and others. Additionally, integrated command and control centers and intelligent traffic management systems (ITMS) will become operational in these cities soon.

According to the recent review, Agra and Varanasi have completed the most significant number of projects and are the cleanest cities, adhering to smart city standards, with improved water supply, power, strengthened sewerage systems, solid waste management, public transportation, parking facilities, streetlights, digitization, and security measures, among others. The state government has also launched a cloud-based smart city digital monitoring system with a budget of Rs 28 crore to monitor the progress made by these ten cities.

In addition to the ten cities covered under the smart city mission, the state government has decided to install ITMS in seven more cities, including Ayodhya, Firozabad, Gorakhpur, Ghaziabad, Mathura-Vrindavan, Meerut, and Shahjahanpur.