Smart cities: Bhubaneswar, Pune, Jaipur, Surat and Kochi among top 5

NEW DELHI: Bhubaneswar, Pune, Jaipur, Surat and Kochi are among the 20 cities which have been chosen to be developed as smart cities in India.

The 20 cities topped the Smart City challenge competition, which involved rating the smart city plans sent by 97 cities on fixed criteria. The first batch of 20 cities include nine cities from BJP-ruled states. Interestingly, there is not even a single city from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal in the chosen 20. Bhubaneswar topped the list followed by Pune, Jaipur, Surat and Kochi. Madhya Pradesh had the most number of cities with Jabalpur, Indore and Bhopal being chosen in the first batch. Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan have two cities each.

The government has also offered a fast track window for the next rejected 23 cities based on their ranks to upgrade their proposals and submit them by April 15 for evaluation. Apart from Bhubaneswar, Pune and Jaipur, the other cities include Surat and Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Kochi in Kerala, Bhopal, Jabalpur and Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Visakhapatnam and Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, Solapur in Maharashtra, Davanagere and Belagavi in Karnataka, the New Delhi Municipal Council in Delhi, Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Udaipur in Rajasthan, Guwahati in Assam and Ludhiana in Punjab. A total investment of Rs 50,802 crore has been proposed in these 20 cities.

"Implementation of smart cities plan will showcase integrated planning. The investment of Rs 50,802 crores has been proposed in selected smart cities and towns during the five-year period," said urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu, while announcing the list. "There are five capital cities among the 20 smart cities chosen," Naidu said. "A consortium of only Indian companies was chosen for plans of nine cities from the 20 cities chosen," he added.

The Centre would be contributing Rs 200 crore with an equal contribution from the states in the first year to develop these 20 smart cities. This would be followed by Rs 100 crore the next year. With such investment expected in the smart cities, the urban development minister went to great lengths to underline the fairness of the process. “The contest was very transparent. I did not know about the list of 20 cities till last evening when secretary (urban development) briefed me. It was a scientific process with weightage given to certain parameters,” said Naidu.

Here are the 20 smart cities chosen to be developed by the centre:

1. Bhubaneswar

2. Pune

3. Jaipur

4. Surat

5. Kochi

6. Ahmedabad

7. Jabalpur

8. Vishakhapatnam

9. Solapur

10. Davanagere

11. Indore

12. NDMC

13. Coimbatore

14. Kakinada

15. Belagavi (Kannada name for Belgaum)

16. Udaipur 17. Guwahati

18. Chennai

19. Ludhiana

20. Bhopal