The results of the India Smart City Contest-2020 were declared on the completion of 6 years of the Smart City Mission, one of the most important projects of the Modi government. Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri gave awards to the best cities in a virtual program. Indore city of Madhya Pradesh and Surat in Gujarat have been jointly chosen as the smartest city of the year 2020. In the category of states, Uttar Pradesh has got the first place in the country. While Madhya Pradesh remained second and Tamil Nadu at number three in this list. This is the first time that states have also been awarded on the basis of their status of smart cities.
The awards were announced by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Secretary, Mantralaya Durga Shankar Mishra. Indore and Surat have been declared joint winners of Smart Cities Award 2020. The winners have been selected on the basis of city’s executive, culture, environment, cleanliness, economy, water system and urban mobility. In the year 2019, Surat was declared the winner of this competition.
The ministry has also announced the names of the top cities of the country working against the corona pandemic in better and innovative ways. In this category of ‘Covid Innovation’, Kalyan and Dombivli from Maharashtra and Varanasi city of Uttar Pradesh have been declared joint winners.
The Ministry has announced these awards on the 6th anniversary of Smart Cities Mission (SCM), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U).
Chandigarh won the category of Smartest Union Territories. Apart from this, Indore was also awarded ‘Innovative Idea Award’. According to the ministry, Ahmedabad became the winner of the ‘Smart Cities Leadership Award’. In this category, Varanasi city stood second and Ranchi city third.
Surat, Indore, Ahmedabad, Pune, Vijayawada, Rajkot, Visakhapatnam, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Vadodara have been given 4-star ratings to these nine cities in the country.