A symposium on “Urban Development in the North Eastern States: Smart City Revolutions” was organized by the Planning & Development department, Urban Development Department, Government of Sikkim, and Gangtok Smart City Development Limited in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Development of North East Region (DONER), Government of India in the capital city of Sikkim, Gangtok as a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav: North East Festival being celebrated from 28th April to 4th May.
The event was graced by Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs and Petroleum & Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, Sikkim Minister for Urban Development and Food & Civil Supplies Arun Upreti, MLA and Advisor, Infrastructure Development G T Dhungel, Mayor, Gangtok Municipal Corporation Neil Bahadur Chettri, and other top officials of the State administration.
Reiterating the continuous efforts of the Union Government’s commitment to the overall development of the North-Eastern States, Puri said, “Recognising that some additional support is needed for the Smart Cities to complete certain projects, including in Sikkim, I am happy to announce today that we have agreed to amend the funding pattern and raise it to 90:10, thus ensuring that many projects in the region will reach completion”.
Addressing a symposium on ‘Urban Development in the NE States, he added that sort of help from his Ministry for other projects proposed by the Sikkim Government will be given. Puri also informed that in the Smart Cities Mission, 523 projects worth Rs 13563 crores are in various stages of implementation in the ten cities of the NE Region. A total of 121 projects worth Rs 1553 crores have been successfully completed with another 268 projects worth Rs 8507 crores under implementation.
