With Inputs from Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi/Bengaluru
New Delhi/Bengaluru, Jan 28: Union minister for urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday January 28 announced the first list of 20 cities to be developed under the Smart Cities Mission. Sadly for the coastal region of Karnataka, Mangaluru does not figure in the list.
Two of the six cities proposed from Karnataka - Davangere and Belagavi - have made it to the list.
Despite topping in Swachh Bharat rankings last year, Karnataka’s cultural capital of Mysuru did not get the honour of being included in the country's first 20 smart cities.
Six smaller cities of Karnataka - Mangaluru, Shivamogga, Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad, Tumakuru and Davangere - were included in the coveted smart cities’ project list under the Centre’s 100 smart cities project.
Davangere incidentally has bagged the 10th rank while Belagavi is the 15th in the list of 20 cities chosen by the Narendra Modi regime.
Bhubaneswar, capital of Odisha pipped all other competing cities in the country to gain the top rank followed by Pune and Jaipur.
The other cities in the list are top scorer Surat, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, Vishakapatnam, Sholapur, Dhavanagiri, Indore, NDMC (Delhi), Coimbatore, Kakinada, Belagavi, Udaipur, Guwahati, Chennai, Ludhiana and Bhopal.
Addressing a press meet, Naidu said that the Smart City Mission generated huge citizen participation with 1.52 crore people participating in the various stages of the process.
Rs 3 lac crore has been allocated for smart cities development. The track record, infrastructure and service levels of the proposed cities were some of the criteria on which the selection was made.
"These 20 cities will be the first to receive funds, hence kickstarting the process of developing them into 'smart cities'. The next two years will see the inclusion of 40 and 38 cities more," Naidu said at a press conference here.
Naidu added: "Smart cities need to be inclusive, sustainable and effective engines of growth, fulfilling the aspiration of Young India."
Reacting to the news, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, who is presently in Haridwar, said, "There was no problem with the proposal submitted by us. Mangaluru did not get selected probably due to population factor, as we fall just short of the required number."
MLA J R Lobo said, "I do not know on what criteria they made the selection. We have tried our best. Mangaluru may get selected in future."
Mangaluru city mayor Jacintha Alfred expressed disappointment and said, "It is sad that Mangaluru has not been selected, but we will keep up our efforts and we hope that our city would be selected in the second list next year."
Assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management systems, efficient urban mobility and public transportation, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation are some of the highlights of the initiative.
"Nobody can stop an idea whose time has come and this applies to the Smart City (initiative as well)," Naidu said while announcing the list of cities that were selected through the 'Smart City Challenge Competition'.
Congratulating the winners of the competition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "I wish the cities the very best as they move forward with implementation and transform urban India."
The contest was as rigorous and demanding as the civil services competition, Naidu quipped. "For the first time in the country and perhaps in the world, investments in urban development are being made based on a competition among cities. The results of the competition revealed the unrecognised strength of our federal structure," he said.
The cities in the first list have made it to the top of the competition based on implementation framework, including feasibility and cost-effectiveness, which had a weightage of 30 per cent, followed by result orientation (20 pc), citizen participation (16 pc), smartness of proposal (10 pc), strategic plan (10 pc), vision and goals (5 pc), evidence- based city profiling and key performance indicators (5 pc) and processes followed (4 pc).
Naidu said that the various states selected the cities and sent a list of 97 names, out of which 20 have been selected. A bottom-up rather than top-down approach has been the key planning principle under Smart City Mission, he said.
While Delhi is spread over 1,484 sq.km, the NDMC zone covers three per cent, or 42.7 sq.km, of that area.
UD ministry had in June last year released the guidelines and mission statement for the project to develop 100 Smart Cities. The mission is a flagship programme of the Modi government.
The focus of the mission includes the provision of clean water, setting up of sanitation and solid waste management systems, efficient mobility and public transportation, affordable housing and governance.
The cities have come up with clear strategies for implementation and have identified partnerships and collaborations for producing the desired results.
Of the 20 cities, 18 have come forward with retrofitting proposals. Ahmedabad has proposed both retrofitting and redevelopment while Bhopal will only take up redevelopment.
Naidu said a total investment of Rs 50,802 crore has been proposed in the selected cities over the five-year period. Of this, Rs 38,693 crore will be spent on area development.
The proposals are based on detailed assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats specific to the city and the area chosen for development.
In all, a total area of 26,735 acres will be taken up for improvement across these 20 cities, including redevelopment of 425 acres (Bhopal-350 acres and Ahmedabad-75 acres).
Under retrofitting, deficiencies in infrastructure and other areas will be holistically addressed. Redevelopment means demolishing built-up areas which are not amenable to any intervention.
Investments proposed range from Rs 1,049 crore (Ludhiana) to Rs 5,099 crore (Indore).
The 20 cities account for a total population of 3.54 crore with city-wise population ranging from 2.58 lakh (New Delhi Municipal Council area) to 55.78 lakh (Ahmedabad).
Five cities have a population of below 5 lakh, four in the range of 5-10 lakh, six in the range of 10-25 lakh, four between 25 and 50 lakh. Only one city (Ahmedabad) has a population of more than 50 lakh.
Eleven states have found representation in the list of the top 20 cities. Jammu and Kashmir is yet to decide on its choice for the Smart City Mission.
"We are thinking of giving the top-ranking city in each of these 23 states and UTs an opportunity to upgrade their proposals in a fast-track round of competition. They will be given time till April 15 this year to submit their upgraded proposals," Naidu said.
The normal round-2 of competition for 54 more cities and towns will begin on April 1 this year. Those who do not make the grade in the fast-track competition will also join this second round.
Indian consulting firms as well as foreign companies were involved in guiding the mission cities in the preparation of their smart city plans.
Of the top 20 cities, consortiums of only Indian companies were associated with plans of nine cities (Kakinada, Surat, Kochi, Coimbatore, Davanagere, Indore, Jabalpur, Solapur and Udaipur). Indian consultants were associated with plans of another six cities along with foreign companies.
In all, Indian consulting firms were associated with 15 of the top 20 proposals. Only foreign consultants have worked on the proposals of Visakhapatnam, NDMC, Pune, Ludhiana and Jabalpur.
At least 10 out of the 20 smart cities are located in states that will hold assembly elections over the next two-and-a-half years.
Among the states which will go for assembly elections are Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Gujarat and Karnataka.
BJP is focusing its efforts on Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and wants to come back to power in Karnataka.
Surprisingly, no city in poll-bound West Bengal has been chosen in the list of smart cities.
Uttar Pradesh, which was allotted 12 cities, the second highest allotment, has not made it in the first round.
The states which have not found a place in the list of first 20 cities selected for smart cities projects are Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Chhattisgarh.
The NDA government released a list of 98 cities on August 24 selected for the smart cities project aimed at kick-starting the next wave of planned urbanisation in India.
With IANS and PTI Inputs