The Union government has announced the names of the first 20 urban areas that will be developed as smart cities.
These shortlisted cities were selected from Smart City Challenge competition in which 97 cities and towns had participated from 23 States and UTs.
20 shortlisted smart cities (Rank wise) are
- Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
- Pune, Maharashtra.
- Jaipur, Rajasthan.
- Surat, Gujarat.
- Kochi, Kerala.
- Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
- Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.
- Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
- Solapur, Maharashtra.
- Davangere, Karnataka.
- Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
- New Delhi Municipal Corporation.
- Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
- Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh.
- Belagavi, Karnataka.
- Udaipur, Rajasthan.
- Guwahati, Assam.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
- Ludhiana, Punjab.
- Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
About Smart City
- The vision for smart cities includes quality communications including Wi-Fi and infrastructure like drinking water on tap, automated waste collection and uninterrupted power supply, all luxuries for most cities.
- The cities would offer “decent living options to every resident” which would provide a “very high quality of life comparable with any developed European city”, a note from the Urban Ministry declared.
- To build smart cities, India allocated Rs. 6000 crores ($962 million) in last year’s budget.