In a smart move, the Ministry of Urban Development has decided to organise an interaction between officials of the 20 Smart Cities with their counterparts from 23 cities which failed to make it to the top.
The interaction will take place at a day-long workshop organised by the Ministry where representatives from one top-ranked city in each of the 23 States and Union Territories that could not win in the first round will take part. The Ministry aims to give these cities another chance to submit revised proposals to the Urban Development Ministry by April 15 this year and improve their respective tally.
“These 23 cities will be advised on how to bridge the identified gaps in their Smart City Plans earlier submitted and evaluated in the first round of competition,” an official release said. Areas required to be improved include financing plans, convergence of different schemes of central and state governments, smart and frugal solutions and consistency of area development plans, it added.
Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu will also address the representatives of the 43 cities.
The 20 smart city winners will also discuss next steps regarding operationalisation of SPVs, project formulation and resource mobilisation. Experts from Centre for Science and Environment, Institute of Spatial Planning and Environment Research, Indian Institute of Human Settlements, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank, among others, will guide the winners and losers on the future steps.
The 23 cities participating in the 'Fast Track Competition' include Warangal (Telangana), lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), New Town Kolkata, Panaji (Goa), Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh), Dharamshala, (Himachal Pradesh), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Bhagalpur (Bihar) and Karnal (Haryana) and Chandigarh.
Others include Shillong (Meghalaya), Namchi (Sikkim), Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Diu (Daman and Diu), Oulgaret (Puducherry), Silvassa (Dadra and Nagar Haveli), Imphal (Manipur), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura), Kohima (Nagaland), Aizawl (Mizoram) Kavaratti (lakshadweep), and Dehradun (Uttarkhand).
As per the Smart City Mission Guidelines approved by the Government, only 20 cities were to be selected in the first year and 40 each in the subsequent two years for extending financial support.