Kohima miss out on ‘Smart City’

Announcing the cities, Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said that the winners were from 11 States and the Union Territory of Delhi. He said that the selection was totally objective and transparent based on standardized processes.

He however informed that the 23 States and Union Territories (UTs) who could not make to the list of winners would be given an opportunity to participate in a ‘fast track competition’. 

“Each top ranking city form these left out states can upgrade their smart city proposals and submit them by April 15, this year for inclusion in the mission”, he said.

Around 1.52 crore citizens participated in shaping smart city plans of 97 cities and towns in the first round of competition. M. Venkaiah Naidu said that such enthusiastic participation of people was a major positive outcome.

He said that the Smart City Mission marks a paradigm shift towards urban development in the country since it is based on ‘bottom up’ approach with the involvement of citizens in formulation of city vision and smart city plans and the Urban Local Bodies and State Governments piloting the mission with little say for the Ministry. 

He also observed that it was for the first time in the country and even in the world that investments in urban sector are being made based on competition based selection of cities.

Naidu informed that the 20 winning cities and towns have proposed a total investment of Rs. 50,802 crore over five years with all the cities proposing Public-Private-Partnership as a major vehicle of resource mobilization. 

10 of the 20 cities have proposed to mobilize Rs.8,521 cr under PPP model while others have also indicated this option. A total area of 26,735 acres has been identified by these cities for making them smart through necessary interventions, the minister said.

Of these 20 cities accounting for a total population of 3.54 crore, five have  a population below 5 lakhs each, 4 in the range of 5-10 lakhs, 6 in between 10-25 lakhs, 4 between 25 and 50 lakhs and only Ahmedabad has above 50 lakhs.

“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.

The 20 selected cities should now set up special purpose vehicles and start implementation of their proposals, prepare detailed project reports, float tenders etc

Elaborating on the advantages of Smart City Mission, Naidu said it would lead to integrated urban planning by addressing the issue of infrastructure, land use planning, transport, urban design and architecture in a holistic manner unlike in the past. Stating that building a smart city is not a destination but a series of small steps in that direction, Naidu said that the country has taken one such step today.

The minister said urban local bodies are taking a quantum jump to improve their capabilities and have resorted to SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of each city for coming out with city vision.