Winners of the Smart City awards seen along with President Droupadi Murmu.
BELAGAVI
Belagavi and two other cities in Karnataka won the India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC 2022) awards at the national level.
Belagavi City won the award for overall performance among South Indian cities under 10 lakh population, while Shivamogga and Hubballi Dharwad won awards for special projects.
President Droupadi Murmu gave away the awards to officers who were heading their respective teams at a ceremony in Indore in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday.
In 2016, Belagavi was among the cities listed under the Smart City Mission in the first list. A total of Rs 930 crore was allotted for Belagavi. Of this, Rs 854 crore were released and the Smart City Limited has utilised Rs 761.21 crore on 103 works so far.
The works include a physiotherapy centre for disabled children at Mahatma Phule Garden, Ravindra Kaushik e-Library, a kid zone, the development of 11 concept-based parks, Kanabargi Lake rejuvenation, Integrated Command and Control Centre, and the development of hospitals and smart roads.
The (Cities Investments To Innovate Integrate and Sustain) CITIIS Challenge was announced in partnership with Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the European Union, to extend loans for building sustainable cities.
It is noteworthy that this was the first time in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that the projects were evaluated for embedding Environmental Social Governance (ESG) principles into project conceptualisation and project development and exploring ways of innovative project financing.
Hubballi Dharwad Smart City has won the first prize in the category of innovative idea award for the CITIIS project with the theme Open space upgradation, Nala renovation, and Green corridor development. The award was received by IAS officer Hephsiba Rani Korlapati and managing director of Smart City Rudresh Ghali and others.
