20 urban areas that will be developed as smart cities, has been announced by the Union government on today, by the urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu. "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 minister of urban development 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 states selected cities and sent us a list of 97 names. There was a competition among these names and 20 cities have been selected,” Naidu said in a news conference. “Bottom up approach has been the key planning principle under Smart City Mission,” he said. “The Smart City Challenge Competition was as rigorous and demanding as the civil services competition conducted,” Naidu quipped.

These smart cities will be developed with basic infrastructure through assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation.

The cities compete on a variety of matrices, including urban reforms and their plan of action in four key areas -- Swachh Bharat, Make in India, good governance (modern accounting system, rationalisation of property taxes) and e-governance.

The Centre and states will equally split the overall cost of the project estimated at Rs 96,000 crore. The central government will provide on an average Rs. 100 crore per chosen city per year. The project cost of each smart city will vary depending upon the level of ambition, model, capacity to execute and repay.

Following is the list of 20 smart cities:

1. Bhubaneswar
2. Pune
3. Jaipur
4. Surat
5. Kochi
6. Ahmedabad
7. Jabalpur
8. Vishakapatnam
9. Sholapur
10. Davangere
11. Indore
12. NDMC
13. Coimbatore
14. Kakinada
15. Belagavi
16. Udaipur
17. Guwahati
18. Chennai
19. Ludhiana
20. Bhopal

Some of the features of smart cities, according to the government are:-

1. Promoting mixed land use in area based developments
2. Housing and inclusiveness
3. Creating walkable localities
4. Preserving and developing open spaces
5. Promoting a variety of transport options
6. Making governance, citizen-friendly and cost effective
7. Giving an identity to the city
8. Applying Smart Solutions to infrastructure and services in area-based development in order to make them better

By Premji