The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), that has the responsibility to develop the civic and infrastructural assets of the greater Bangalore metropolitan area, is working overtime to meet the June 30 deadline to submit its proposal under the Centre’s Smart City Mission.
In order to compete in the second round of selection, the BBMP has to submit its proposal to a high-level screening committee headed by Chief Secretary Arvind Jadhav by the end of this month.
If selected in the second round which will be held in August this year, BBMP will then be able to implement the proposals in the current financial year.
The centre has recently included seven state capitals including Bengaluru under the mission since they earlier failed primarily on grounds of poor governance.
Some of the important qualifying parameters at the entry-level were the preparation of audit report and percentage of JnNURM phase-1 project, an online grievance redressal system, payment of salary by urban local bodies etc.
Surprisingly Bengaluru which is also known as the Silicon Valley of India scored the least marks among the smart cities that competed against each other. Cities like Mangaluru, Shivamogga, Belagavi, Hubballi, etc. scored much better than Bengaluru and passed the entry-level competition.
The BBMP will now face direct competition with other cities in the country to get selected under the mission. Any city which qualifies will receive an amount of Rs. 1000 crore to be spent in the next four years.
