Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lok Sabha constituency Varanasi, along with Kanpur and Agra from the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, is among the 27 centres which have been picked in the third list of smart cities.
Vadodara, Nagpur, Ajmer, Amritsar, Thane, Gwalior and Thanjavur are some other cities in the list, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said on Tuesday.
Rank wise Amritsar topped the list followed by Kalyan-Dombivili in Maharashtra, Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
Varanasi lagged behind at 23rd position. With this, the number of cities selected in the third round under Smart City Mission has gone up to 60, covering 27 States and Union Territories.
Nine States/UTs which are yet to enter implementation phase are; Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Puducherry, lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra, Nagar & Haveli.
A maximum of five cities from Maharashtra have found place in the list of new cities. Four cities each from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have also made it to the list followed by three from Uttar Pradesh and two each from Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan.
One city each has been selected in this round from Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Sikkim and Nagaland.
To be developed as smart cities, these centres would have facilities such as assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management systems, efficient urban mobility and public transportation, IT connectivity and e-governance, among others.
Stating that Smart City Mission is running ahead of schedule, Naidu said the next round of competition to select the remaining 40 cities would begin in January next year.
Satisfied with the results, Naidu said, “The willingness and enthusiasm among cities to participate in more than one round of competition is a clear evidence of the urban renaissance set in motion. Competition-based selection has made the cities rediscover themselves as they are undertaking a thorough assessment of gaps in the present levels of infrastructure and service delivery and come out with comprehensive, credible and actionable plans for area-based development and technology based Pan-city solutions.”
Also, he said the new 27 smart cities have proposed an investment of Rs 66,883 crore under smart city plans, including Rs 42,524 crore under area based development and another Rs 11,379 crore for technology based Pan-city solutions that benefit all the citizens of respective cities.
With this, the total investment proposed by the 60 cities selected so far has gone up to Rs 1,44,742 crore, he said.