Surat, Ahmedabad among first 20 cities to qualify for Smart City funding

Indian consulting firms as well as foreign companies were involved in guiding the mission cities in the preparation of their smart city plans.

“The Smart City Challenge Competition was as rigorous and demanding as the civil services examination conducted by UPSC”, said urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu, announcing the 20 names.

“Congratulate #bhubaneswar citizens & the team for securing first position amongst Smart Cities”, he tweeted.

Pune and Jaipur have come in second and third position.

An urban development ministry official said Bhubaneshwar was one of the cities that mooted the idea of promoting cycling, bike sharing or e-rickshaws, along with other cities such as Ludhiana, Moradabad, Vadodara, Bilaspur, Ranchi and Tiruchirapalli. The competition was among 97 cities that were lined up on the recommendations of the state governments, Uttar Pradesh topping the list with 13 cities and towns, followed by Tamil Nadu 12, Maharashtra 10, Madhya Pradesh 7, Gujarat and Karnataka 6 each.

Union parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu said, “We introduced competition to pick the best candidates”.

This is the first time, a MoUD programme is using the “Challenge” or competition method to select cities for funding and using a strategy of area-based development.

A total investment of Rs. 50,802 crore has been proposed for the selected Smart Cities during the five year period. “Our priorities will be Nava Vadaj Ramapir area development, TOZ (transit oriented zone), laying optical fibre network and also integrated transit platform in the city”.

RS 200 CR GRANT IN 4 YEARS After getting selected, Ahmedabad will get its first instalment of Rs 200 crore out of total grant of Rs 1,000 crore over 4 years.

NEW DELHI (AP) – India took a step toward modernizing its cities on Thursday by awarding 20 with funds to solve problems from shoddy sewage treatment to snarled traffic. “Going forward the success will rest on the effective implementation of the development of these smart cities”.

THE CHANDIGARH administration will now have assistance from France in restructuring its Smart City proposal.