Modi Government to Announce 20 Smart Cities in January

Another flagship programme called Awas Yojana (Urban) by Modi involves an investment of Rs 22,000 crore for 2015. It will allow construction of 4.25 lakh houses for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in 227 cities in 11 states.

The release added, "In pursuit of enabling urban areas as more effective engines of high rate of economic growth besides making them more liveable, the government has put an end to ad-hocism in urban planning and resource allocation under new urban sector initiatives. Under AMRUT, a detailed infrastructure gap analysis has been made mandatory for formulating Service Level Improvement Plans (SLIP) for each of the mission cities for allocation of central assistance from out of the five year kitty of Rs 50,000 crore. Unlike in the past, urban local bodies and state governments have been empowered to appraise and approve projects with the Ministry of Urban Development completely withdrawing from the same."

READ ALSO: Starting March, Dial 9 to Send Panic Alert to Police & Dear Ones
10 New Expectations to Look Forward To in 2016