Mission a safe bet, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu assures investors.
Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday urged local and international investors to put their money on the Smart City Mission, assuring them that it was a safe bet.
Mr. Naidu unveiled a list of 98 cities with Uttar Pradesh taking the largest share of developing 13 smart cities followed by Tamil Nadu, which qualified to develop 12.
“Both national and international investors are looking for opportunities in the backdrop of the recent financial crisis,” said Mr. Naidu. “People are searching for safe investments. I offer smart cities as the safest investment because land is going to be there, structures are going to be there, so the returns are assured.”
With an aim to achieve “inclusive growth”, the Smart City Mission promotes integrated city planning, where the government’s policies such as Swachh Bharat Mission and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation complement each other.
Of the 98 cities and towns that five years down will graduate into smart cities, 24 are capital cities, another 24 are business and industrial centres, 18 are culture and tourism influenced areas, five are port cities and three are education and health care hubs.
The missed ones
Nine cities, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Shimla, Puducherry, Daman, Patna, Itanagar, Thiruvananthapuram and Gangtok did not qualify for being a smart city. “This non-inclusion goes to prove that the selection in the first stage of competition was not swayed by the status or importance of the cities and the selection was objective and as per the stipulated criteria,” Mr. Naidu said.
Mr. Naidu said the Urban Development Ministry would provide Rs. 100 crore to each city over the next five years.
The success of the government’s Smart City Mission is largely dependent upon the finance generation at the State-level as well as private investments. The Centre has set aside Rs. 48,000 crore for the mission and the money will be released to urban local bodies at frequent intervals in the next five years. The Centre has asked the State governments to generate the rest of the Rs. 48,000 crore as the grand total of the mission is estimated at Rs. 96,000 crore.
Full list of Smart Cities
| Sl.No. | Name of State/UT | No. of citiesshortlisted | Names of selected cities | Population of Cities |
| 1. | Andaman & Nicobar Islands | 1 | Port Blair | 1,40,572 |
| 2. | Andhra Pradesh | 3 | 1. Vishakhapatnam/ 2. Tirupati/ 3. Kakinada | 1.18,78,980/ 2. 3,74,260/ 3. 3,50,968/ |
| 3. | Arunachal Pradesh | 1 | Pasighat | 26,656 |
| 4. | Assam | 1 | Guwahati | 9,62,334 |
| 5. | Bihar | 3 | 1. Muzaffarpur/ 2. Bhagalpur/ 3. Biharsharif | 1. 3,93,724/ 2. 4,10,210/ 3. 2,96,889 |
| 6. | Chandigarh | 1 | Chandigarh | 10,55,450 |
| 7. | Chhattisgarh | 2 | 1. Raipur/ 2. Bilaspur | 1. 10,47,389/ 2. 3,65,579 |
| 8. | Daman and Diu | 1 | Diu | 23,991 |
| 9. | Dadra and Nagar Haveli | 1 | Silvassa | 98,032 |
| 10. | Delhi | 1 | New Delhi Muncipal Council | 2,49,998 |
| 11. | Goa | 1 | Panaji | 1,00,000 |
| 12. | Gujarat | 6 | 1. Gandhinagar/ 2. Ahmedabad/ 3. Surat/ 4. Vadodara/ 5. Rajkot/ 6. Dahod | 1. 2,92,797/ 2. 55,77,940/ 3. 44,67,797/ 4. 17,52,371/ 5. 13,23,363/ 6. 1,30,530 |
| 13. | Haryana | 2 | 1. Karnal/ 2. Faridabad | 1. 3,02,140/ 2. 14,14,050 |
| 14. | Himachal Pradesh | 1 | Dharamshala | 22,580 |
| 15. | Jharkhand | 1 | Ranchi | 10,73,427 |
| 16. | Karnataka | 6 | 1. Mangaluru/ 2. Belagavi/ 3. Shivamogga/ 4. Hubbali – Dharwad/ 5. Tumakuru/ 6. Davanagere | 1. 4,84,785/ 2. 4,88,292/ 3. 3,22,428/ 4. 9,43,857/ 5. 3,05,821/ 6. 4,35,128 |
| 17. | Kerala | 1 | Kochi | 6,01,574 |
| 18. | Lakshwadweep | 1 | Kavaratti | 11,210 |
| 19. | Madhya Pradesh | 7 | 1. Bhopal/ 2. Indore/ 3. Jabalpul/ 4. Gwalior/ 5. Sagar/ 6. Satna/ 7. Ujjain | 1. 19,22,130/ 2. 21,95,274/ 3. 12,16,445/ 4. 11,59,032/ 5. 2,73,296/ 6. 2,80,222/ 7. 5,15,215 |
| 20. | Maharashtra | 10. | 1. Navi Mumbai/ 2. Nashik/ 3. Thane/ 4. Greater Mumbai/ 5. Amravati/ 6. Solapur/ 7. Nagpur/ 8. Kalyan-Dombivilli/ 9. Aurangabad/ 10. Pune | 1. 11, 19, 000/ 2. 14,86,000/ 3. 18,41,000/ 4. 1,24,00,000/ 5. 7,45,000/ 6. 9,52,000/ 7. 24,60,000/ 8. 15,18,000/ 9. 11,65,000/ 10. 31,24,000/ |
| 21. | Manipur | 1 | Imphal | 2,68,243 |
| 22. | Meghalaya | 1 | Shillion | 3,54,325 |
| 23. | Mizoram | 1 | Aizwal | 2,91,000 |
| 24. | Nagaland | 1 | Kohima | 1,07,000 |
| 25. | Odisha | 2 | 1. Bhubaneshwar/ 2. Raurkela | 1. 8,40,834/ |
| 26. | Puducherry | 1 | Oulgaret | 3.00,104 |
| 27. | Punjab | 3 | 1. Ludhiana/ 2. Jalandhar/ 3. Amritsar | 1. 16,18,874/ 2. 8,68,181/ 3. 11,55,664 |
| 28. | Rajasthan | 4 | 1. Jaipur/ 2. Udaipur/ 3. Kota/ 4. Ajmer | 1. 30,73,350/ 2. 4,75,150 3. 10,01,365/ 4. 5,51,360 |
| 29. | Sikkim | 1 | Namchi | 12,190 |
| 30. | Tamil Nadu | 12 | 1. Tiruchurapalli/ 2. Tirunelveli/ 3. Dindigul/ 4. Thanjavur/ 5. Tiruppur/ 6. Salem/ 7. Vellore/ 8. Coimbatore/ 9. Madurai/ 10. Erode/ 11. Thoothukudi/ 12. Chennai | 1. 9,19,974/ 2. 4,74,838/ 3. 2,07,327/ 4. 2,22,943/ 5. 8,77,778/ 6. 8,31,038/ 7. 5,04,079/ 8. 16,01,438/ 9. 15,61,129/ 10. 4,98,129/ 11. 3,70,896/ 12. 67,27,000 |
| 31. | Telangana | 2 | 1. Greater Hyderabad 2. Greater Warangal | 1. 67,31,790/ 2. 8,19,406 |
| 32. | Tripura | 1 | Agartala | 4,00,004 |
| 33. | Uttar Pradesh** | 12 | 1. Moradabad/ 2. Aligarh/ 3. Shaharanpur/ 4. Bareilly/ 5. Jhansi/ 6. Kanpur/ 7. Allahabad/ 8. Lucknow/ 9. Varanasi/ 10. Ghaziabad/ 11. Agra/ 12. Rampur | 1. 8,87,871/ 2. 8,74,408/ 3. 7,05,478/ 4. 9,03,668/ 5. 5,05,693/ 6. 27,65,348/ 7. 11,12,544/ 8. 28,17,105/ 9. 11,98,491/ 10. 16,48,643/ 11. 15,85,704/ 12. 3,35,313 |
| 34. | Uttarakhand | 1 | Dehradun | 5,83,971 |
| 35. | West Bengal | 4 | 1. New Town Kolkata/ 2. Bidhannagar/ 3. Duragapur/ 4. Haldia | 1. 36,541/ 2. 6,33,704/ 3. 5,71,000/ 4. 2,72,000 |
*Jammu and Kashmir has asked for more time to decide on the potential Smart City.
** 12 cities have been shortlisted from Uttar Pradesh against 13 cities allocated to the State.
Source: The Hindu