Chandigarh, Feb 22 (IANS): Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday virtually laid the foundation stones and inaugurated a slew of projects worth Rs 1,087 crore for the holistic development of the urban areas under the Smart City and AMRUT schemes.

He urged the Union government to include the holy city of Anandpur Sahib under the Smart City scheme, as a tribute to Guru Tegh Bahadur on his 400th birth anniversary.

Thanking the people of the state for their overwhelming support to the Congress in the recently concluded civic elections, Amarinder Singh said the mandate is a vindication of the pro-people policies of his government.

Pointing out that while the Congress won 1,410 of the 2,206 wards (64 per cent), the Chief Minister said that all the opposition parties had been decimated because of their anti-people and vicious negative agendas.

He lambasted the earlier Akali-BJP regime for ignoring the development of the urban areas and expressed confidence that the launch of these projects will drive sustainable progress in these regions.

The Chief Minister said he was particularly delighted to lay the foundation stone for the Rs 721 crore surface water supply scheme for Amritsar city, his erstwhile Parliamentary constituency.

He said this scheme would ensure access to clean drinking water to the residents of the holy city, instead of the contaminated and fast depleting groundwater.

The Chief Minister said under the first phase of Urban Infrastructure Improvement Programme, 2,065 projects have been started, with majority being completed, at a cost of Rs 300 crore.

He said another 4,227 projects have been approved under the second phase and work on 1,300 of them has already started.

Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra said that Amarinder Singh had taken personal interest in ensuring proper hygiene and sanitation in urban areas during the difficult phase of the Covid-19 pandemic.