Smart city list: Smaller cousins pip metros

NEW DELHI: State capitals which include Lucknow, Mumbai, Gandhinagar, Jaipur, Vijaywada, Bhubaneswar, Raipur and Guwahati have made it to the Smart Cities list while Patna, Kolkata and Bengaluru have not found place in the list of top 100 nominations. All Union Territories have nominated their names including Delhi.
Rather some of the lesser known cities and municipal areas such as Bihar Sharif in Bihar, Moradabad and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Dharamsala in Himachal, Shivamogga in Karnataka have been nominated by the states.Sources in the urban development ministry said the big cities have not made it to the list because of the selection criteria. “States have been selected based on an objective mechanism. Cities with better capability to implement projects and generate their own resources have been selected. It’s a move towards transparency and fair competition where none can influence the selection process,” said an urban development ministry official.
In the first phase, Centre will pick 20 cities and in the next two years 40 cities each will be selected for receiving central funding of Rs 500 crore spread over the next five years. So, eventually all the cities and municipal areas nominated for this scheme will be developed as smart cities.
TOI has learnt that the urban development ministry is also considering whether the number of cities for this ambitious scheme can be increased so that more cities get the benefit and citizens’ quality of life is improved.
Ministry officials said that the criteria for evaluating every municipal area was discussed and finalized after consultation with states. Officials added since the project can be successful only when states provide full support, the Centre will approve all names sent by them.
Sources said the cities that could not complete project under the JNNURM scheme even after several extensions seem to be losing in the race as it reflected how inefficient their local bodies were in project implementation.
According to the guidelines of the scheme, the objective is to promote cities which provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of “smart” solutions. “The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development and the idea is to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a light house to other aspiring cities,” it says.
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