Modi government releases list of 98 cities to be developed into smart cities
By NewsGram Staff-Writer
New Delhi: Narendra Modi government, on Thursday released a list of 98 cities that will be included in its smart-cities program. The list has been prepared after detailed consultation with different states and Union territories.
The lion's share of the list goes to Uttar Pradesh whose 13 cities have been included in the smart city initiative. 12 cities of Tamil Nadu, 10 cities of Maharashtra, 6 cities of Gujarat and Karnataka each has been included in the initiative, according to a report in Economic Times.
The States and the Union Territories finalized the list of cities from their region that they wanted to develop into smart-cities. The selection marks the end of first stage of the "City Challenge" competition wherein various local urban bodies were evaluated on various parameters like past track record, financial abilities, institutional capabilities etc.
Based on these evaluation, around 65 small and medium towns and cities have been included in the list whereas many important cities like Bengaluru, Patna, Kolkata, Noida and Gurgaon did not make it. Two more cities are yet to be added to the list one from Jammu and Kashmir and the last of the 13 cities from UP.
The next challenge for the selected cities is to create city-level smart city plans that will be evaluated and 20 high scoring cities will be selected for funding during this financial year.
The smart-city features include "centralized public information system, grievance redressal mechanism, proper conversion of waste into energy, fuel, and compost, renewable source of energy, efficient energy and green building, smart parking and intelligent traffic management system," according to ET report.
The Center plans to allocate 200 crore rupees during first year and 100 crore rupees during subsequent three years for each of the selected cities. The total cost for developing 100 smart cities is expected to be 48,000 crore rupees.
The project will open up many investment opportunities for both the domestic and the foreign investors.