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New Delhi: Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala’s capital, tops the list of 30 smart cities followed by Naya Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Gujarat’s Rajkot in terms of development taking the total cities picked up so far to 90 under Smart City Mission. Amaravati, Patna, Srinagar, Bengaluru, Shimla, Dehradun, Aizawl and Gangtok also got selected under the mission.
Minister of Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu said that the 30 cities announced today proposed a total investment of Rs 57,393 crore under respective smart city plans. This includes Rs 46,879 crore for ensuring core infrastructure in the areas identified by citizens for area based development and Rs 10,514 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 Rs 1,91,155 crore.
Forty five cities contested for 40 available smart city slots but only 30 were selected to ensure feasible and workable plans that match the aspirations of the citizens as directed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Twenty cities will now be contesting for the remaining 10 slots under smart city mission. These are — Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Biharsharif (Bihar), Diu (Daman and 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 (Uttar Pradesh).
Naidu said the 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.
