Bhubaneswar, Pune, Jaipur make cut in first list of 20 smart cities

Presently the number of applications is 97 out of the proposed 100 smart cities as per prime minister Narendra Modi’s plan to develop 100 Smart Cities in the country.

After getting selected in first 100 cities for the smart city mission in stage-1, Ahmedabad cleared the second stage by getting selected in first 20 cities under the project.

The centre has sent guidelines for the formation of special goal vehicle (SPV), which is mandatory for implementation of projects under the Smart City Mission. Overall, 20 cities have been selected.

The the city is now emerging as a hub for education, health and information technology.

Arindam Guha, Senior Director, Deloitte in India said: “There are no winners or losers here”.

The winners were chosen based on their plans with weightage assigned to various aspects such as feasibility and cost effectiveness of the plan (30%), result orientation (20%) and citizen participation (16%). “We are confident that this announcement will further accelerate the transformation of cities into smart cities and will witness very significant investments coming in”, said Jaijit Bhattacharya, partner, cities and innovation at KPMG.

The funds could be used for various developmental projects, including drinking water supply in West Kochi, seamless transportation network and implementation of pan-city initiatives. The private partners could be companies from India or from overseas.

Jaipur aspires to leverage its heritage and tourism, through innovative and inclusive solutions, to enhance the quality of life while Udaipur wants to be the “Eternal Udaipur” and world’s favourite lakeside heritage city.

The non-inclusion of Dehradun drew a sharp reaction from the Uttrakhand government which termed it as a decision which reflects the Centre’s attitude of neglect towards the Congress-ruled state. But there are innumerable changes that Bhubaneswar has to go through to become a smart city. Besides, it had allocated over Rs 400 crore for various projects under Smart City in its budget for 2016-17. A total area of 26,735 acres has been identified by these cities for making them smart through necessary interventions.

3 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.