KV Prasad
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 27
The Centre on Thursday released the names of 98 cities that have made
the cut under the ambitious Rs 96,000 crore 100 Smart Cities projects
with e-governance intrinsic to the exercise.
Of the Rs 96,000 crore, Rs 48,000 crore will come from the Centre and the states will contribute a matching grant.
Announcing the names of cities in the keen and intensely competed event,
Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said that Uttar
Pradesh topped the list with 13 cities, followed by 12 of Tamil Nadu and
10 of Maharashtra.
Among the cities of North included in the list of 98 are: Punjab: Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar
Haryana: Faridabad and Karnal
Himachal: Dharamsala
Chandigarh
New Delhi Municipal Council area
Of the 98 cities, 24 are state capitals. The other cities include seven in Madhya Pradesh, six each in Gujarat and Karnataka, four each in Rajasthan and West Bengal, three each in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. The rest of the states have one city each. Announcement regarding two cities was held back after Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh sought more time. UP has to finalise among 13 cities, as all states had to recommend the cities they want to be developed under this programme. The Centre will provide Rs 200 crore in the first year and Rs 100 crore each over the next five years to cities selected after the second round of the competition based on six identified criteria, the Minister announced. Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh being among the handful of cities under the project with under one lakh of population. Among the list of 98 cities in the region, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar are in Punjab; Karnal and Faridabad in Haryana; Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, besides Chandigarh and New Delhi are Municipal Council area.
Besides 24 state capitals in 98 cities, 24 are business and industrial centres, 18 are cultural and tourist centres and three are educational and healthcare centres, Naidu said.
He said 13 crore population across 98 cities, which is 35 per cent of urban population, will be covered under the smart-city mission. "Making them (cities) smart will make them engines of economic growth, besides engines of growth...Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government plans to spend over Rs 3-lakh crore over the next five-six years to recast urban cities,” he said.
In the second round, 20 cities will be identified on the basis of six criteria and funds will be released thereafter. The minister said he held at least six to seven rounds of meeting with different stake holders and will hold the next on September 8.
Full list of cities
Here is the complete list of cities selected under the Centre’s Smart City Project:Andaman & Nicobar Islands: Port Blair.
Andhra Pradesh: Vishakhapatnam, Tirupati, Kakinada.
Arunachal Pradesh: Pasighat.
Assam: Guwahati.
Bihar: Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Biharsharif.
Chandigarh
Chhattisgarh: Raipur, Bilaspur.
Daman & Diu: Diu.
Dadra & Nagar Haveli: Silvassa.
Delhi: New Delhi Municipal Council.
Goa: Panaji.
Gujarat: Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Dahod.
Haryana: Karnal, Faridabad.
Himachal Pradesh: Dharamshala.
Jharkhand: Ranchi.
Karnataka: Mangaluru, Belagavi, Shivamogga, Hubballi-Dharwad, Tumakuru, Davanegere.
Kerala: Kochi.
Lakshadweep: Kavaratti.
Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Sagar, Satna, Ujjain.
Maharashtra: Navi Mumbai, Nashik, Thane, Greater Mumbai, Amravati, Solapur, Nagpur, Kalyan-Dombivali, Aurangabad, Pune.
Manipur: Imphal.
Meghalaya: Shillong.
Mizoram: Aizawl.
Nagaland: Kohima.
Odisha: Bhubaneshwar, Raurkela.
Puducherry: Oulgaret.
Punjab: Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar.
Rajasthan: Jaipur, Udaipur, Kota, Ajmer.
Sikkim: Namchi.
Tamil Nadu: Tiruchirapalli, Tirunelveli, Dindigul, Thanjavur, Tiruppur, Salem, Vellore, Coimbatore, Madurai, Erode, Thoothukudi, Chennai.
Telangana: Greater Hyderabad, Greater Warangal.
Tripura: Agartala.
Uttar Pradesh**: Moradabad, Aligarh, Saharanpur, Bareilly, Jhansi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Agra, Rampur.
Uttarakhand: Dehradun.
West Bengal: New Town Kolkata, Bidhannagar, Durgapur, Haldia.
*Jammu & Kashmir has asked for more time to decide on the potential Smart City.
**12 Cities have been shortlisted from Uttar Pradesh against 13 cities allocated to that state.
