Central government announces 20 smart cities

Emphasizing the need for sustainable urban development, minister for urban development M. Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said in Delhi: “Cities should be water-positive through water harvesting, recycling and reuse of water, energy-positive with each household resorting to renewable sources of energy and community-positive facilitating interactive neighbourhoods”.

Union Urban Development Minister Shri Venkaiah Naidu today made announcement of 20 cities selected for Smart City scheme for first year funding.

In the coming years, the Modi government will announce 40 more cities as a part of its plan to develop 100 Smart Cities in India. Three expert committees constituted by the government have finalised the list of 20. Proposals from states were also judged on how realistic their plan is.

Mr Naidu said these cities are winners of first round of smart cities challenges competition.

While the Centre had announced the “100 smart cities challenge”, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir are yet to nominate one city each under their allotted quotas, and Telangana wants to replace Hyderabad with another city, leaving the race open for 97 cities. In terms of population, these 20 cities account for 3.54 crore people, he added. The cities will be developed to have basic infrastructure through assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management. Jaipur, Rajasthan 4. Surat, Gujarat 5. Jabalpur 8. Vishakapatnam 9. Sholapur, Maharashtra 10. Davangere, Karnataka 11.