Allocation for urban development ministry doubled

New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) The central government Thursday allocated Rs. 17628.56 crore for the urban development ministry in the union budget for 2014-15 fiscal - the amount is more than double it received in the previous budget.

In 2013-14, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance had given Rs.7548.33 crore to the ministry, which has assumed significance as the central government aims at transforming infrastructure.

Of the total amount, over Rs.7,000 crore were set aside for the creation of 100 smart cities - Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet project.

Presenting his first budget in parliament, 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," he added.

Creating 100 smart cities was one of the poll promises made by the Bharatiya Janata Party.