The Modi government not only plans to build new smart cities, but also make the existing ones smarter. The Prime Minister’s Office is working with the urban development ministry on an ambitious plan to give substantial subsidy to those cities that excel in areas like environment protection, waste management, renewable energy, urban transport and rain water harvesting, among other issues. Government sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to launch a major initiative to make major Indian cities more clean and hygienic places to live in. For this, the PM wants to offer major incentives to cities that take the initiative and encourage “healthy competition” among them to start major cleanliness and environment-friendly initiatives. Sources claimed the PMO has already asked the urban development ministry to prepare an elaborate blueprint for this and discuss the issue with representatives of local bodies of important cities. “The living conditions in our cities are deteriorating by the day. It will lead to serious problems, including health issues, in the years ahead. For instance, it is believed that major Indian cities will run out of landfill sites to even dump garbage. So we need to start planning for such issues now exploring possibilities of recycling and reusing garbage. There are many such issues that have been flagged by the PM and the urban development ministry will soon come out with a scheme in collaboration with major cities,” a senior government official said. Sources said the PM is also particularly keen that a pilot project should also be launched in his constituency Varanasi to considerably improve the civic infrastructure in the city. Making Varanasi a cleaner city was one of the issues flagged by the PM when he visited the religious city after he won elections and became PM designate. Both the PMO and the urban development ministry is working out the modalities on how the cities can be given greater subsidy. “One of the possibilities is that money could be given under the existing Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. But a separate fund can also be created for it as the PM has made it clear that there would not be any dearth of resources for this scheme,” the official added.