Chennai, Coimbatore make it to Centre’s Smart City list

Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday announced the first list of 20 cities to be developed as Smart Cities. While Bhubaneswar topped the list and Pune and Jaipur came in second and third, respectively, Tamil Nadu has the distinction of having its capital city Chennai and Coimbatore on the list of 20 cities selected. 

“The states shortlisted cities and sent us a list of 97 names. There was a competition among these names and 20 cities have been selected,” Naidu said, adding that the criterion was a ‘bottom-up approach and has been the key planning principle under Smart City Mission’. 

These cities will be developed to have 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. In the subsequent years, the government will announce 40 cities each to be developed as smart cities as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to develop 100 smart cities in the country. 

The Centre plans to build these smart cities by 2022 to help accommodate its swelling urban population, which is set to rise by more than 400 million people to 814 million by 2050. 

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. 

Raising funds is the key challenge as also is developing older cities with limited scope to overhaul. Heavily populated areas may need complete rebuilding which will then involve temporarily rehabilitating people and, in some cases, acquiring land.