The Centre would develop Leh and Kargil as smart cities in newly-formed UT of Ladakh

The ministry of housing and urban affairs would go beyond the list of 100 smart cities in different states to include two more in Ladakh.
Working on a proposal of the ministry of home affairs to improve infrastructure and employment opportunities in Ladakh, the ministry of housing and urban affairs has formed a five-member central team under Smart Cities director Rahul Kapoor to handhold the union territory in formulating detailed projects reports for both the cities.

This initiative is a part of the Centre’s initiative to develop Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh – the newly formed union territories after the state was bifurcated in October 2019.

The ministry started work on this after a letter from home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla proposing that Leh and Kargil be developed as smart cities.

Secretary (housing and urban affairs) Durga Shankar Mishra has written to Ladakh lieutenant-governor R K Mathur over the government’s initiative and the way forward.

Sources said that the union territory has also formed a team of urban development officers to identify key areas of intervention in both Leh and Kargil that could be developed under the Smart City Mission.

While the ministry is likely to push urban infrastructure like street lighting, smart garbage collection, water supply projects in Leh, it is considering projects to enhance tourism potential of Kargil.

The Smart City mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2015. The ministry selected 100 cities for the mission through a competitive process, which involved presenting an urban infrastructure upgrade plan.

Every state had a share of cities in the final list depending on the urban population and the number of statutory towns in the state. In Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu was chosen under the Smart City Mission. However, after the bifurcation of the state following abrogation of Article 370, Ladakh region did not have any smart city.

A senior ministry official told ET, “Though the list of 100 smart cities is final, the ministry can develop any city on the principles of smart cities. We have added Sultanpur LOdhi in Punjab as a smart city. Similarly, we would add Leh and Kargil in Ladakh. The home ministry has already flagged that after bifurcation of the state, Ladakh UT does not have any smart city under the mission.”