#Ghaziabad ranks a poor 87th in smart city race

Ghaziabad: Ghaziabad has lost out in the smart city race. Its name did not figure on the list of 20 cities announced by the central government for the project on Thursday.Ghaziabad was ranked 87 among all the cities which had submitted their proposals to the Union urban development ministry to be developed under the mission.The names of the cities, which made it to the final round, were announced by Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi.The chosen cities are Bhubaneswar, Pune, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, Visakhapatnam, Solapur, Davangere, Indore, New Delhi area, Coimbatore, Kakinada, Belgaum, Udaipur, Guwahati, Chennai, Ludhiana and Bhopal.Not a single city from Uttar Pradesh has cleared the final hurdle to qualify for development as a smart city.”Cities that have scored between 55 and 78 points have made it to the top 20 list. We are not yet sure about the points secured by Ghaziabad.

The parameters in which Ghaziabad scored low are also unknown. We are, however, optimistic about getting selected in the second phase. We are ready to submit a fresh proposal,” said a senior official of Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation.Earlier, Ghaziabad in the NCR had figured among 12 cities that had been selected from UP to be developed under the smart city scheme.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/Ghaziabad-ranks-a-poor-87th-in-smart-city-race/articleshow/50769735.cms