<span style="color: #222222;">The News Services Division brings you glimpses of the year 2021, in its Special Year Ender series, &quot;The Year that was&quot;. Today, we take a look at the progress made under Smart Cities Mission. The objective of the Mission is to promote sustainable and inclusive cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions.<br />”<br />”Launching the Smart Cities Mission on 25th June in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the Scheme will be an important milestone for urban development in the country.<br />”<br />”Speaking at an event earlier this year, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Puri said that an Atmanirbhar India will only be possible if the cities become productive. He said that India’s cities-enabled by citizen-centric infrastructure and transformational technology-will be the key to achieving the nation’s development objectives.<br />”<br />”He added that by 2030, almost 70 percent of the national GDP will come from cities as rapid urbanisation facilitates efficiencies of agglomerations.<br />”<br />”AIR correspondent reports that a total of 100 Smart Cities were selected under Smart Cities Mission through four rounds of competition from January 2016 to June 2018.<br />”<br />”There has been considerable progress in implementation of projects under the Smart Cities Mission since its inception. The pace of implementation has increased significantly over past 39 months with 270 percent growth in projects tendered and 407 percent growth in projects grounded or completed.<br />”<br />”The period of implementation of Smart Cities Mission has been extended upto June 2023 and all Smart Cities are expected to complete their projects within the stipulated time.<br />”<br />”Central Government has released more than 27 thousand crore rupees so far under the Smart Cities Mission. Over 22 thousand crore rupees has already been utilized out of the total released amount. Six thousand 452 projects worth more than one lakh 84 thousand crore rupees have been tendered so far.&nbsp;</span><br />