Guwahati, April 19 (PTI): A day after union minister M Venkaiah Naidu criticised the delay in the smart city project here, Guwahati Development Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today said it got delayed as no work on it was done during Congress rule.
"We started very late. There was no work during Congress period. We moved backward by 7-8 months in the last government's tenure," Sarma said at a press conference here.
The work for Smart City project started only about nine months back, he added.
"We are now working on to make Guwahati a Smart City. It will take 4-5 months more to catch up with other cities," Sarma said.
Yesterday, Naidu had termed work of the Smart City project in Guwahati, which was selected during the first round itself, as "not satisfactory" and said the North East states would have to improve implementation of central schemes to catch up with the rest of the country.
