Rachna Khaira Jalandhar, March 24 With Punjab Finance Minister announcing an allocation of Rs 500 crore as the state’s share in the smart city project, Jalandhar is expected to finally see some smart development in the next few years. According to Ajoy Sharma, Mission Director, Smart City Project, Punjab, while the state government has allocated Rs 200 crore for turning Ludhiana into a smart city, Rs 1.5 crore has been allocated for the project in Jalandhar and Amritsar. Under the project, each city was to receive Central assistance of Rs 200 crore in the first year and Rs 100 crore over the three subsequent financial years. Though the Central government released its share of Rs 200 crore to Ludhiana immediately after it got selected in September 2016, the state government could not release its matching grant in the same year. Due to this, the Union government held back its grant for Amritsar and Jalandhar and asked the state government to first release its share for Ludhiana. Also, from the Rs 200 crore allocated to Ludhiana, the government could only allocate work worth Rs 48 crore till date, while tenders worth Rs 200 crore are still lying pending with the state government. On the contrary, the Union government last year again released Rs 25 crore to the cities of Amritsar and Jalandhar, but the state could not release its matching grant again. However, with the ‘excessive’ budget allocation of Rs 500 crore, the three cities are expected to resume development work to be carried out under the project.

Stay updated with all the Latest Jalandhar headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.