Two TS, Three AP Cities To Be Made Smart Cities

Union minister for urban development M Venkaiah Naidu today said the Centre would spend Rs 3 lakh crores to create 98 smart cities in the country.

Releasing a list of cities selected for the "Smart City" scheme, Venkaiah said as per the 2011 census, these 98 cities had a 13-crore-plus population.

14 cities have been selected for development as Smart Cities in Uttar Pradesh, followed by 12 in Tamil Nadu, seven in Madhya Pradesh, six each in Gujarat and Karnataka, three in Andhra Pradesh, and two each in Telangana and Bihar.

Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, and Greater Hyderabad and Greater Warangal in Telangana have been selected for development into smart cities.

Two more cities would be announced in due course since the Government of Jammu & Kashmir sought more time to communicate its choices while additional information was sought from the Government of Uttar Pradesh regarding the 13th smart city slot allotted to that state, Naidu stated.

Naidu said that these cities and towns were nominated by the states and union territories that they belonged to at the end of first stage of the "City Challenge" competition in which all the urban local bodies in each state and UT were evaluated based on their financial and institutional capacities and past track record.

After releasing the list of selected cities at a media conference, Naidu gave details of the profiles of all the selected cities and towns in terms of population and character.

He informed that 24 cities were capitals, 24 were business and industrial centers, 18 were of cultural and tourism importance, five were port cities and three were educational and healthcare hubs.

Venkaiah Naidu said that as against the Central assistance of only Rs 36,000 crores during the 10 years of JNNURM, the Centre would now provide about Rs 3 lakh crores under various new urban initiatives.