SURAT: The diamond city of Surat again rose to prominence by bagging the best overall performance award among 100 smart cities on Friday.
Surat was declared the joint winner along with Indore at the third apex conference of smart cities held at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
Surat also received awards in other categories.
In 2019, Surat was the sole winner of the award.
According to officials, Surat and Indore bagged the best award for their overall performance in 2020 and Uttar Pradesh won the state award.
The India Smart Cities Award Contest (ISAC) is organized under the Smart Cities Mission by the ministry of housing and urban affairs, Government of India.
Surat also won awards in four categories — Built Environment, Urban Mobility, Water and Sanitation.
“Congratulations Surtis!! Our City Surat has got the First Rank for Overall City Award by Government of India for the third time in a row! Apart from this, Surat has got several awards in different categories too,” Banchhanidhi Pani, Surat municipal commissioner, tweeted after the awards were announced.
Moreover, the ministry also launched the report on Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) 2.0 to evaluate the current performance of cities across five thematic areas in which 126 cities participated.
Surat received first rank in Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) and Data Maturity Assessment Framework (DMAF) as well.
“As part of the Smart Cities Mission, Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) and Surat Smart City Development Ltd have launched many projects such as Intelligent Transit Management System (ITMS), Automatic Fare Collection System, Surat Money Card, Tertiary Treatment Plant, Smart Solid Waste Management System, Visual improvement and model road, Anuvrat Dwar canal Road development, VIP Road, Suman Eye (CCTV network), Air quality Monitoring system, solar and wind power generation and also affordable housing,” an official said.
The awards were instituted to recognize pioneering city strategies, projects and ideas based on innovation, impact, replicability and scalability.
The awards were announced to commemorate six years of the Smart City Mission.