Post News Network
New Delhi, August 27: The Modi government Thursday unveiled the names of 98 smart cities of which two — Bhubaneswar and Rourkela — are from the state.
The Centre will provide `100 crore every year for the next five years to each of the 98 cities, Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu said.
“The work on the smart cities mission that started about a year ago reached a major landmark with official announcement of the smart city nominees,” said Naidu.
The cities have been selected in terms of the population, Rourkela having a population of 3,10,976 falls in the 1-5 lakh population criteria and Bhubaneswar with 8,40,834 falls in the 5-10 lakh population category, said Naidu.
The first stage of competition was conducted by the state and Union territories only with little role for the Union urban ministry, said Naidu.
The City Challenge Competition has now entered the second stage, Naidu said. In the next couple of days, the Centre will release `2 crore for each of the 98 cities for preparation of smart city plans.
Smart city plans will be implemented by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to be set up for each identified city to enable effective implementation through focused effort, Naidu said. States and urban local bodies will have 50:50 equity in the SPV. The private sector can also be roped in with equity, with management control resting with the states.
No timeframe has been set for the completion the smart city project.
Among the other state, Mumbai, Bangalore and Patna do not figure in the list. “It is the states that have sent the names of the cities to be included in the project. Names of Patna and Bangalore were not proposed by their respective states. As far as Mumbai is concerned, Maharashtra has proposed Navi Mumbai,” Naidu said.
Uttar Pradesh has the maximum of 13 cities, followed by 12 by Tamil Nadu and 10 by Maharashtra to be developed as smart cities, while Madhya Pradesh has seven cities in the project.
Karnataka and Gujarat have six cities each, while Bihar and Andhra have three each and the rest of the states have two and one cities, respectively, in the project.
However, both Meerut and Rae Bareli have got equal points for the 13th slot in the city challenge competition in Uttar Pradesh so now the state has to decide which city it wants to nominate, sources said.
Jammu and Kashmir also has to nominate one city. Sources in the urban development ministry said, Jammu and Kashmir wants both Jammu and Srinagar to be developed as smart cities though the state has got only one slot.