Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has announced the names of the first 20 of the 98 selected cities that will be developed into smart cities.
The 20 cities are:
Bhubaneswar (Odisha), Pune (Maharashtra), Jaipur (Rajasthan), Surat (Gujarat), Kochi (Kerala), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Sholapur (Maharashtra), Davangere (Karnataka), Indore (Madhya Pradesh), New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC, Delhi), Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh), Belagavi (Karnataka), Udaipur (Rajasthan), Guwahati (Assam), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Ludhiana (Punjab), and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh).
“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. In terms of Population, these 20 cities account for 3.54 crore people. A total investment of Rs 50,802 crore has been proposed in the selected smart cities and towns during the five-year period. Bottom-up approach has been the key planning principle under Smart City Mission,” added Naidu at the press conference.
The 20 cities were chosen from 98 shortlisted for the ‘Smart Cities Mission’.
