Lucknow, Warangal among 13 to join smart city mission

The Union government on Tuesday announced the addition of 13 more cities to the `Smart City Mission', with Lucknow in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh topping the list, followed by Warangal in Telangana and Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh among the new entrants.

These cities were chosen from the 23 that failed to get representation in the first round of a competition held in January, and participated in the ''fast-track competition.'' Urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu announced the results on Tuesday.

Other cities in the list are Chandigarh, Raipur (Chhattisgarh), New Town Kolkata, Bhagalpur (Bihar), Panaji (Goa), Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Imphal (Manipur), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura) and Faridabad (Haryana).

''The 13 cities selected in the competition have proposed a total investment of Rs30,229 crore. With this, the investment proposed by 33 cities (20 cities made the cut in January) under the smart city plans is now Rs80,789 crore,'' Naidu said.

The 13 cities were selected based on the marks scored by them in the Fast Track competition and the benchmarks set by the top performers in the first round of Smart City Challenge competition in which the first 20 cities were selected from among 98 mission cities.

Naidu said the 13 cities have substantially improved their smart city plans by addressing the deficiencies identified in the first round of competition by ensuring better profiling of respective cities in terms of infrastructure gaps and baseline service levels, ensuring consistency between citizens' aspirations and action plans, more feasible resource mobilisation plans and coordinated and integrated picture of how individual projects will contribute to area level changes.

Other cities that participated in Fast Track Competition were Namchi in Sikkim and ranked 14, Aizawl (Mizoram-15), Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh-16), Dehradun (Uttarakhand-17), Kohima (Nagaland-18), Oulgaret (Puducherry-19), Silvassa (Dadra & Nagar Haveli-20), Kavaratti (Lakshdweep-21), (Daman & Diu-22) and Shillong (Meghalaya-23). These cities can submit their revised smart city plans for evaluation in the second round of regular competition underway by the end of June.

Seven cities - Patna (Bihar), Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Naya Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), Bengaluru (Karnataka) and Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) - that were not among the 100 shortlisted for the competition will be able to participate in the next round, the minister added.

The minister said that as a part of efforts for country's transformation towards higher levels of social and economic development, renaissance of urban sector has been set in motion through a paradigm shift in policies and programmes.

''The new approaches introduced, the new churning at the level of urban local bodies and states/UTs, the new spirit of competition among cities and states to do better than others, the new enthusiasm and vigor being demonstrated, the new clarity of thought about outcomes and actions to be taken and the new beginning towards urban transformation in a more purposeful and holistic manner marked the process of urban renaissance'' he said.

The smart cities will ensure assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management systems, efficient urban mobility and public transportation, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation are some of the highlights of the smart city project.

The government's Smart City mission aims to transform 100 cities by 2019-20, with the union government providing financial support of Rs48,000 crore over five years.

Each city will receive central assistance of Rs200 crore in the first year and Rs100. crore over the three subsequent financial years. State governments and respective urban local bodies will also match the centre's contribution.

While 20 cities were selected in 2015-16 as per the mission's guidelines, another 40 (including the 13) will be selected this year. The remaining will be chosen in the next financial year.