Indore, Surat joint winners of Smart Cities 2020; UP wins ‘state award’

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Indore and Surat were on Friday adjudged joint winners of the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry’s Smart Cities Award 2020, while Uttar Pradesh secured the first position in the state awards category, tailed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The awards were given based on a range of themes like social aspects, governance, culture, urban environment, sanitation, economy, built environment, water and urban mobility. In 2019, Surat was the only winner among smart cities. This is the first time that states have also been awarded for the overall performance of smart cities.

The ministry also announced joint winners under the COVID innovation category — Kalyan-Dombivali and Varanasi. The awards were announced on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the Smart Cities Mission (SCM), the Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U).

Chandigarh bagged the award for union territories, while Indore won the “Innovative Idea Award”. According to the ministry, Ahmedabad bagged the ‘Smart Cities Leadership Award’, followed by Varanasi and Ranchi in the second and third spots respectively. The top nine performing cities which have been awarded a 4-star rating are Surat, Indore, Ahmedabad, Pune, Vijayawada, Rajkot, Visakhapatnam, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Vadodara.