The Smart City plans to be submitted by the 98 identified mission cities for evaluation in the second stage of ‘City Challenge Competition’ will be assessed for their credibility and do-ability, said a senior Union Urban Development Ministry official.
He said, the Ministry has firmed up the evaluation criteria seeking to enable formulation of workable city level Smart City Plans as suggested by the UD Minister Venakaiah Naidu. States and Urban local Bodies have been adequately consulted in this regard, the official added.
The Mission cities are currently engaged in preparation of Smart City Plans to be submitted to the Ministry by the 15th of next month for evaluation so as to pick up the first batch of mission cities for financing this year. The 98 cities were earlier selected based on intra-State competition in the first stage of City Challenge Competition based on a set of criteria.
Citizen engagement has been made mandatory for identifying smart city objectives and evolving strategic plan under city-level criteria.