The ‘City of Nawabs’, lucknow, has topped the list of winners of the second edition of the Fast Track Competition conducted for 23 cities from all the States and Union Territories under the Modi Government’s ambitious ‘Smart Cities Mission.’
lucknow is followed by Warangal in Telangana and Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. Other winners announced on Tuesday are Chandigarh, Raipur, New Town (Kolkata) Bhagalpur, Panaji, Port Blair, Imphal, Ranchi, Agartala and Faridabad.
Twenty three cities, with higher rankings from as many States and Union Territories, which failed to get representation in the first round of the competition held in January, participated in the ‘Fast Track Competition’, the result of which was announced by Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday.
Of these 23 cities, only 13 could qualify for the Smart City projects through the fresh competition, said Naidu adding that with the selection of these 13 cities, 25 States/UTs were now covered under Smart City Mission.
“The 13 cities selected in the Fast Track Competition have proposed a total investment of Rs 30,229 crore.
With this, the investment proposed by 33 cities (20 cities announced in January and 13 cities on Tuesday) under the Smart City plan is now Rs 80,789 crore,” he added.
Other cities that participated in the Fast Track Competition were, Namchi (Sikkim) Aizawl (Mizoram), Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh), Dehradun (Uttarakhand) Kohima (Nagaland) Oulgaret (Puducherry), Silvassa (Dadra, Nagar & Haveli), Kavaratti (lakshadweep), Diu (Daman & Diu) and Shillong (Meghalaya). 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 capital cities, Patna, Shimla, Naya Raipur, Itanagar, Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, which were not included in the 100 cities shortlisted for the competition, will be able to participate in the next round with other cities.
Also, one out of Meerut and Rai Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and another out of Jammu and Srinagar in Jammu & Kashmir would also be selected for evaluation under the mission, he added.
In January, Naidu announced the first list of 20 cities to be developed as Smart Cities, with Bhubaneswar topping the list and Pune and Jaipur coming in second and third respectively. The others on the list include Surat, Kochi and Ahmedabad.
Smart cities are picked though a two-stage process. In the first stage, a State shortlists potential cities and sends the names to the Centre. In the second round, these nominated cities compete with each other.
The selection is based on the scores cities get for carrying out urban reforms in various areas including sanitation and governance.
Each city will be given Rs 500 crore by the Centre over five years. The States will have to make a matching contribution.
These cities will be developed to have basic infrastructure through assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation.