Published on: Aug 31, 2015 @ 18:04
The government on Thursday released a list of the names of 98 Indian cities chosen for its Smart Cities project after a nationwide competition between states. Uttar Pradesh gets the most number of Smart Cities- 13, followed by Tamil Nadu’s 12, while Maharashtra will get 10 such cities. Madhya Pradesh will have seven Smart Cities and Gujarat and Karnataka will have six each. Andhra Pradesh and Bihar get three each. All Union Territories, including Delhi, have found place in the list.
The J & K government had declared two cities – Jammu and Srinagar – instead of one, so the 100th city is yet to be selected. It has asked for more time to decide between Jammu and Srinagar as its nominee for the Smart City project.
Uttar Pradesh has nominated 14 names for its 13 slots and has not formally declared its preference between Meerut and Rae Bareli. It has been asked to decide between Rae Bareli and Meerut as the 99th Smart City.
Of those chosen for the project, 24 are capital cities, 24 are business hubs and 18 are cultural centres. Cities like Patna, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram and Shimla have failed to make the cut in round one.
“Our prime motive is to enhance urban life. The mission is very practical and realistic, ” Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said as he made the announcement. Here is the list of smart cities released by the government :
| 1.Port Blair | 2.Vishakhapatnam | 3.Tirupati | 4.Kakinada | 5.Pashighat |
| 6.Guwahati | 7.Muzaffarpur | 8.Bhagalpur | 9.Biharsharif | 10.Chandigarh |
| 11.Raipur | 12.Bilaspur | 13.Diu | 14.Silvassa | 15.NDMC |
| 16.Panaji | 17.Gandhinagar | 18.Ahmedabad | 19.Surat | 20.Vadodara |
| 21.Rajkot | 22.Dahod | 23.Karnal | 24.Faridabad | 25.Dharamsala |
| 26.Ranchi | 27.Mangaluru | 28.Belagavi | 29.Shivamogga | 30.Hubballi-Dharwad |
| 31.Tumakuru | 32.Devanegere | 33.Kochi | 34.Kavaratti | 35.Bhopal |
| 36.Indore | 37.Jabalpur | 38.Gwalior | 39.Sagar | 40.Satna |
| 41.Ujjain | 42.Navi Mumbai | 43.Nasik | 44.Thane | 45.Greater Mumbai |
| 46.Amravati | 47.Solapur | 48.Nagpur | 49.Aurangabad | 50. Kalyan-Dombivalli |
| 51.Pune | 52.Imphal | 53.Shillong | 54.Aizwal | 55.Kohima |
| 56.Bhubaneswar | 57.Rourkela | 58.Oulgaret | 59.Ludhiana | 60.Jalandhar |
| 61.Amritsar | 62.Jaipur | 63.Udaipur | 64.Kota | 65.Ajmer |
| 66.Namchi | 67.Tiruchirapalli | 68.Tirunelveli | 69.Dindigul | 70.Thanjavur |
| 71.Tiruppur | 72.Salem | 73.Vellore | 74.Coimbatore | 75.Madurai |
| 76.Erode | 77.Thoothukudi | 78.Chennai | 79.Agartala | 80.Greater Hyderabad |
| 81.Moradabad | 82.Aligarh | 83.Shaharanpur | 84.Bareilly | 85.Greater Warangal |
| 86.Jhansi | 87.Kanpur | 88.Allahabad | 89.Lucknow | 90.Varanasi |
| 91.Ghaziabad | 92.Agra | 93.Rampur | 94.Dehradun | 95.New Town Kolkata |
| 96.Bidhannagar | 97.Durgapur | 98.Haldia |
The India Smart Cities Challenge, is being run by the government and the New York-based Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Centre has earmarked Rs 48,000 crore funding for development of 100 smart cities. In the first phase, Centre will finance top 20 cities and in the next two years 40 cities each will be selected for receiving Central funding of Rs 500 crore spread over the next five years. Each smart city will get a Central assistance of Rs. 100 crore per year for five years.
The Smart Cities mission focus on the needs and on the greatest opportunities to improve quality of life for residents. It is the government’s big push for urban renewal in almost 100 Indian cities and towns. The announcement of the first list of Smart City, can be only the beginning of what will be an interesting experiment in urban development policy.
Ajay Verma, founder, and writer of The Housing World, a real estate and mortgage news website. He has over fifteen years of rich experience in the above-mentioned industries.
