Smart Cities Mission-A Smart India Awaits

The Minister for Urban Development Mr. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday has announced the list of names of the first 20 cities to be funded to develop them as Smart Cities under PM Mr. Narendra Modi’s ambitious initiative ‘Smart Cities Mission’. These first 20 cities have been selected out of the 98 shortlisted ones with Bhubaneswar topping the list. In the coming two years will witness the inclusion of 40 and 38 cities respectively.

• A smart city will basically be advanced in infrastructure (information technology will be the base for infrastructure), having sustainable real estate, better health care facility and education, communication and transport facility, market viability thereby improving the standard of living. The technologies will include automated sensor networks and data centres.
• Under the Smart Cities Mission, each state will have at least one smart city.
• The central government will invest a whopping Rs. 50,802 crore in the selected 20 cities for five years. Of this huge amount, Rs. 38,693 crore will be invested on area development and the rest Rs. 12,109 crore on pan-city solutions.
• Naidu has revealed that the top 20 cities have proposed certain specific areas to redevelop or retrofit. For example, Bhubaneswar will redevelop 985 acres around its main railway station in the centre spot of the city. Jaipur on the other hand has proposed to improve its vast scenic beauty and tourism through redeveloping its walled city area of 600 acres.

(Source: The Hindu)