First 20 Smart Cities List Announced
The list of 20 smart cities out of the 98 shortlisted for the 'Smart Cities Mission' was released on Thursday by union urban minister Venkaiah Naidu.These 20 cities will be the first to receive funds, thus kickstarting the process of developing them into 'smart cities'. Four capitals are among the first 20 cities to be developed as 'Smart Cities' .
None of the cities were named from telangana state while Andhra Pradesh gets two states Vizag and Kakinada.The cities chosen are Visakhapatnam, Kakinada ,Solapur, Davangere, Indore, the New Delhi area, Coimbatore, , Belgaum, Udaipur, Guwahati, Chennai, Ludhiana, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur and Bhopal.
The Centre will provide Rs 200 crore in the first year to each chosen city and Rs.100 crore every subsequent year. 48 more cities will be added in next two years.
The smart cities concept was initiated after Modi won in 2014 elections and till now there was no development on the mission. If the centre is really serious to implement this smart idea, then it has to speed-up the process immediately. Unless, it sets a time frame for completion and allocates sufficient funds for this purpose, smart cities may remain smart dreams only.
News Posted: 28 January, 2016
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