Thursday 18 April 2013

Best City Awards to Gujarat

Gujarat cities again create benchmark in urban planning, transparency and resources. Surat gets best city award, Ahmedabad runners up.

Gujarat has been adjudged with four prestigious awards by the Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) in different categories at a function held here. Out of total six awards, four awards were received by Gujarat for Overall Quality of Life in all parameters and Quality of City and Governance. Surat bagged best city award for Quality of Life and Governance while Ahmedabad city ranked third. All the four awards were received by Shri I.P. Gautam Principal Secretary (Urban Development) of Gujarat Government and Shri Manoj Das, Commissioner Surat from Shri N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman Emeritus, Infosys Ltd.

The cities were ranked on a primary survey of 11 India’s largest cities and two global benchmarks, London and New York. Gujarat has received a number of national and international awards in last decade for Good Governance. Under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi as Chief Minister, Gujarat has developed one of the best infrastructures in the country and created conducive environment for its people to realize their full potential and excel in their chosen vocation.

Gujarat has invigorated the development of its cities and urban spaces with innovative ideas and their speedy implementation for long term, robust urban growth. In the last decade, the State Government has taken a series of initiatives dedicated to urban areas that have generated wonderful results. Gujarat’s pioneering initiatives in areas such as water management, disaster management, health care, education, women empowerment, rural development, industrial development, investment promotion have been studied far and wide and several of them have been replicated and up-scaled in other states of the country.

Recently, “India Today- awarded Gandhinagar, Surat Rajkot and Vadodara for providing best public services to the citizens.

“Chalo Chalen Bengal”: First-Ever Month-Long Campaign for Tourism Promotion in West Bengal Launched in Delhi on the 4th April 2013


As part of the campaign, with the attractive catch-line of “Chalo Chalen Bengal” (Let’s Visit Bengal), picturesque and high-quality advertisement panels depicting premier tourist attractions of the State will be displayed in 15 such bus shelters across Delhi, apart from the city airport and key railway stations.

In keeping with the multi-dimensional approach to present the tourist-friendly atmosphere of the State, the Hon’ble Minister also inaugurated a new state-of-the-art tourism information centre at the WBICC office, equipped with high-speed internet connection and other modern facilities. He opened a Photography Exhibition titled “Beautiful Bengal” by Shri Sanjay Das at the Muktadhara Art Gallery at WBICC, with an objective to project to the visitors the myriad hues of West Bengal.