New Delhi, July 10 (IANS): The government will spend Rs.7,060 crore to turn into reality Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of building 100 smart cities in the country.
Presenting his first budget in parliament Thursday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Modi "has a vision of developing 100 smart cities as satellite towns of larger cities and by modernizing the existing mid-sized cities".
"To provide the necessary focus to this critical activity, I have provided a sum of Rs.7,060 crore in the current fiscal," Jaitley said.
"Unless new cities are developed to accommodate the burgeoning number of people, the existing cities would soon become unliveable," the minister added.
Creating 100 smart cities was one of the poll promises made by the Bharatiya Janata Party before coming to power in May 16.
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