Business

India announces first batch of 20 smart cities

India on Thursday announced announced the 20 winners of the Smart City Challenge competition for financing during the current financial year. Bhubaneswar, the capital of eastern state of Odisha topped the list followed by Pune and Jaipur which emerged second and third.

6_banner2

Lingaraj temple, Bhubaneswar, Credit: lingaraj temple website

India on Thursday announced the 20 winners of the Smart City Challenge competition for financing during the current financial year. Bhubaneswar, the capital of eastern state of Odisha, topped the list followed by Pune and Jaipur which emerged second and third respectively.

Announcing the cities Minister of Urban Development M.Venkaiah Naidu said in New Delhi that the winners were from 11 states and the union territory of Delhi.

He said the selection was totally objective and transparent. It was for the first time in the country and even in the world that investments in urban sector are being made on competition based selection of cities, he said.

As many as 1.52 crore citizens participated in shaping smart city plans of 97 cities and towns in the first round of the competition.

He stated that three cities from Madhya Pradesh, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and one each from the remaining five made it to the winning list.

Rank wise, the 20 smart cities are: 1. Bhubaneswar, 2. Pune, 3. Jaipur, 4. Surat, 5. Kochi, 6. Ahmedabad, 7. Jabalpur, 8. Visakhapatnam, 9. Solapur, 10. Davanagere, 11. Indore, 12. New Delhi Municipal Council, 13. Coimbatore, 14. Kakinada, 15. Belagavi, 16. Udaipur, 17. Guwahati, 18. Chennai, 19. Ludhiana, and 20.Bhopal.

Naidu however added that 23 states and union territories who could not make it to the list of winners will be given an opportunity to participate in a ‘fast track competition’.

Each top ranking city from these left out states can upgrade their smart city proposals and submit them by April 15 for inclusion in the mission.

The government will invest over Rs 50,800 crore during next five years to improve the urban infrastructure in these 20 cities.

The government has identified 26,735 acres area in 20 cities for making them smart.

The services which would be improved under this initiatives include assured water and power supply, better public transportation, sanitation and solid waste management systems, IT connectivity use of e-governance and citizen participation.

Big Wire

 

 

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Most Popular

To Top