Finally the wait is over with Government announcing Nominated 98 Smart Cities

The Union government announced the list of 98 nominees of Smart Cities, covering a population of 13 crores i.e. approx. 35% of urban population . Venkaiah Naidu said that the Central government proposes to give support to Mission to the extent of Rs 48,000 crore over a 5 year period. The implementation of the Mission at the city level will be done by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and the state/UTs & urban local bodies shall have an important role to play in the implementation of Smart City.

Though there is no universal definition of a Smart City and varies from city to city and country to country, depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the city residents does go a long way to determine the same.In the Smart Cities Mission, the objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions. The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development and the idea is to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a light house to other aspiring cities. The Smart Cities Mission of the Government is a bold, new initiative. It is meant to set examples that can be replicated both within and outside the Smart City, catalysing the creation of similar Smart Cities in various regions and parts of the country.

The core infrastructure elements in a Smart City would include-
1. Adequate water supply,
2. Assured electricity supply,
3. Sanitation, including solid waste management,
4. Efficient urban mobility and public transport,
5. Affordable housing, especially for the poor,
6. Robust IT connectivity and digitalization,
7. Good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation,
8. Sustainable environment,
9. Safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly, and
10. Health and education.

Purpose:- Smart Cities Mission would drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development and harnessing science & technology, especially technology that leads to Smart solutions.

Following is the full list of the nominated smart cities:

1) Port Blair
2) Vishakhapatnam
3) Tirupati
4) Kakinada
5) Pasighat
6) Guwahati
7) Muzaffarpur
8) Bhagalpur
9) Biharsharif
10) Chandigarh
11) Raipur
12) Bilaspur
13)Silvassa
14) Diu
15. Delhi (NDMC)
16) Panaji
17) Gandhinagar
18) Ahmedabad
19) Surat
20) Vadodara
21) Rajkot
22) Dahod
23) Karnal
24) Faridabad
25) Dharamshala
26) Ranchi
27) Mangaluru,
28) Belagavi,
29) Shivamogga,
30) Hubballi-Dharwad,
31)Tumakuru,
32)Davanegere
33) Kochi
34) Kavarrati
35) Bhopal,
36) Indore,
37) Jabalpur,
38) Gwalior,
39) Sagar,
40) Satna,
41) Ujjain
42) Navi Mumbai,
43) Nashik,
44) Thane,
45) Greater Mumbai,
46) Amravati,
47) Solapur,
48) Nagpur,
49) Kalyan-Dombivali,
50) Aurangabad,
51) Pune
52) Imphal
53) Shillong
54) Aizawl
55) Kohima
56) Bhubaneshwar,
57) Raurkela
58) Oulgaret
59) Ludhiana,
60)Jalandhar,
61)Amritsar
62) Jaipur,
63) Udaipur,
64) Kota,
65)Ajmer
66) Namchi
67) Tiruchirapalli,
68)Chennai,
69)Tiruppur,
70)Coimbatore,
71)Vellore,
72)Salem,
73)Erode,
74)Thanjavur,
75)Tirunelveli,
76)Dindigul,
77)Madurai,
78)Thoothukudi
79)Greater Hyderabad,
80) Greater Warangal
81) Agartala
82)Moradabad,
83)Aligarh,
84)Saharanpur,
85)Bareilly,
86)Jhansi,
87)Kanpur,
88)Allahabad,
89)Lucknow,
90)Varanasi,
91)Ghaziabad,
92)Agra,
93)Rampur
94) Dehradun
95) New Town Kolkata,
96) Bidhannagar,
97) Durgapur,
98) Haldia

IndianBureaucracy.com wishes that the Smart Cities take shape the way that they have been planned and still the real estate prices stay in reach of a common man. We do hope that the tags for Smart Cities do not become a political tug of war to appease political affiliations.