The Union Budget has earmarked Rs. 7,060 crore during the current financial year for developing 100 'smart cities' in the country.
Announcing this in his budget speech today, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a vision of developing 100 satellite towns of larger cities as 'smart cities'.
The government will also modernise existing mid-sized cities under the programme, he said.
"With development reaching an increasingly large number of people, the pace of migration from rural areas to cities is increasing. The new cities should be developed to accommodate the burgeoning number of people. Otherwise, existing cities will soon become unlivable," he said.
