Another list of 30 cities takes smart city projects to 90

The central government today announced another list of 30 cities for development as smart cities, taking the total number of cities selected so far under the Smart City Mission to 90.

The government has already selected 60 cities under the Smart City Mission, launched on 25 June 2015.

The selection this time was for remaining 40 of the proposed 100 smart cities. However, only 30 out of the 45 contested were found to fit the selection criteria.

This time, Kerala capital Thiruvanathapuram topped the list, followed by Chhattisgarh's new capital Naya Raipur.

Dehradun, Jammu and Srinagar also made it to the list. But, Raebareli. Ghaziabad and Meerut were not included in the new list.

Announcing the new batch of smart cities at a National Workshop on Urban Transformation in New Delhi today, minister of urban development and housing and urban poverty alleviation M Venkaiah Naidu said the 30 cities were selected from among 45 that contested for 40 available smart city slots.

The cities were selected to ensure feasible and workable plans that match the aspirations of the citizens as directed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, adding that there will be no compromise in selection of cities and quality of smart city plans.

The 30 cities announced today in the order of marks scored are: Trivandrum (Kerala), Naya Raipur (Chattisgarh), Rajkit (Gujarat), Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), Patna (Bihar), Karimnagar (Telangana), Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Puducherry (Puducherry), Gandhinagar (Gujarat) Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir), Sagar (Madhya Pradesh), Karnal (Haryana), Satna (MP), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Dehradun (Uttarakhand),Tiruppur (Tamil Nadu), Pimpri chinchwad (Maharashtra), Bilaspur (Chattisgah), Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh), Jammu (Jammu & Kashmir), Dahod (Gujarat), Tirunelveli, Thootukkudi and Tiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu) Jhansi (UP), Aizawl (Mizoram), Allahabad and Aligarh (UP) and Gangtok (Sikkim)

Naidu said the 30 smart city projects announced today have proposed total investments of Rs57,393 crore. This includes Rs46,879 crore for ensuring core infrastructure in the areas identified by citizens for area based development and Rs10,514 crore for technology based solutions for improving governance, service delivery and utilisation of infrastructure.

With this the total investment approved under the smart city plans of 90 cities has gone up to Rs1,91,155 crore.

The minister said that 20 cities will be contesting for the remaining 10 slots under smart city mission. These are; Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Biharsharif (Bihar), Diu (Daman & Diu), Silvassa (Dadra and Nager Haveli), Kavaratti (Lakshadweep), Navimumbai, Greater Mumbai and Amaravati (Maharashtra), Imphal (Manipur), Shillong (Meghalaya), Dindigul and Erode (Tamil Nadu), Bidhannagar, Durgapur and Haldia (West Bengal), Meerut, Rai  Bareilly, Ghaziabad, Sharanpur and Rampur (UP).

Naidu said selection of cities for smart city development is running ahead of schedule and the remaining cities would submit revised smart city plans for filling up the vacant slots.