Officials say Jaipur has done ‘well’ in smart cities contest

Jaipur: Officials associated with the urban development and housing department and the civic bodies in Rajasthan feel that the state and Jaipur have done ‘well’ in the Indian Smart Cities Awards Contest 2022 – that concluded on Friday.
In the contest Rajasthan finished third among overall state ratings and Jaipur was ranked 11th in the overall ratings for cities.Udaipur stood second jointly in the good governance category.
“Given the scope of work we had in different cities of the state, especially Jaipur, I feel we had done well in the contest. Finishing third among all the states is really a major achievement,” said Rajendra Singh Sekhawat, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Jaipur Smart City Limited.
In the overall state ranking, Madhya Pradesh topped the list, Tamil Nadu finished second and Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh jointly secured the third position.
“This feat was achieved on the basis of the performance of all the smart cities across the state. Maybe, individually, none of the cities from the state is in the top 10, still this clearly indicates that developments are not confined to just one or two cities but in all cities across the state,” said a senior town planner from the urban development and housing department.
Even in the overall ranking for smart cities Jaipur bagged the 11th position among the 100 smart cities across the country. In the 2021 version of this contest Jaipur had finished 14th in the ranking for the cities.
“We have executed 118 projects worth Rs 760.05 crore, another 18 projects worth Rs 251.34 crore are in progress, and we would initiate 14 more projects at a cost of Rs 18.87 crore. It means 15 projects for a total cost Rs 1,030.27 crores. Jaipur had done well considering the criteria of the contest and the budget allocated for our smart city projects,” added Sekhawat.
Officials said, for next year, the aim is to make Jaipur, feature in the top 10 list.