Overview
- Following a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, the state directed top officials to take result-oriented steps to make Surat slum-free.
- Government spokesperson Jitu Vaghani said Surat’s slum share has dropped from roughly 36–38% in 2006 to about 5% at present.
- Officials present the goal as creating the country’s first slum-free city in the over-70-lakh bracket, noting that Chandigarh was declared slum-free earlier at around 10 lakh population.
- The state currently estimates Surat’s population at 70–80 lakh, while the 2011 Census recorded close to 45 lakh.
- Gujarat expects to build about 5.5 lakh houses in the next five years under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, part of a national plan exceeding one crore homes.