Centre will allocate 500 cr for each smart city: Narayana

Amaravati: Minister for municipal administration P Narayana said an area of 500 acre is only eligible for development under the smart cities plan. Answering the members during the question hour in the Assembly on Friday, Narayana said the Centre would release Rs 500 crore for each smart city in the State. He said the members were submitting various plans for the development of whole area in the respective smart city due to lack of knowledge.

The specified 500 acres area is only eligible for implementing development works with the budget allocation of the Centre. The Minister said the plans were ready with budget of Rs 1,471 crore for Visakhapatnam, Rs 1,610 crore for Tirupati and Rs 1,941 crore for Kakinada. He said the detailed project reports are yet to be finalised for Amaravati city. The required funds for total works would be allotted by the State government, he said.

MLA Ganesh Kumar expressed concern over the plans of the smart city. He said the government was not giving permission for spiritual programmes but permission for a cinema functions was given recently on the beach road without any restrictions.  He asked the government to change the smart city rules so that they can be applied for betterment of poorer sections.