New Delhi:
The government today announced first 20 winners of a nationwide competition to pick cities and towns for a 'Smart City' makeover.
Here are the highlights:- Paradigm shift in our approach to urban development
- Perhaps first time in the world, investment are being made on the basis of selection of cities
- Ambitious game changer that seeks to transform the cities and towns into sustainable centres of academic activity providing improved quality of life
- This game changing mission marks the end of usual business approach in the country
- Integrated plans and proposals so that there is maximum analysis, planning, coordination and minimum delays
- Implementation will demonstrate how integrated planning area development smart technology can deliver better quality of life
- PM Modi believes in total transformation of the country - Planning Commission converted into Niti Aayog
- Changes and challenges and desired outcomes are there. It was imperative to pick up cities and towns that can face these challenges
- So we introduced an element of competition to pick up the best candidates
- City Challenge Competition was a rigorous and demanding as the Civil Service examination conducted by the UPSC
- The whole process of competition was conducted in an objective and transparent manner
- Bottom up approach has been the key planning principle under 'Smart City' mission
- The results of the competition revealed the unrecognized strength of the federal structure in our country
- Smart City Plans have been prepared by the Urban Local Bodies and the States
- A total investment of Rs.50,802 crore has been proposed in the selected Smart Cities and towns during the five year period
- Nothing has been dictated from Delhi, nothing has been decided by Delhi, nothing has been designed by Delhi
- Everything has been done at the urban local bodies level. Citizen participation is mandatory.
- Bloomberg technology state governments urban local bodies standardised templates with a set of 43 questions based on sheer merit
- In terms of population, these 20 cities account for 3.54 crore people
- Bhubaneswar tops the list of smart city
- The list includes, Bhuvaneshwar, Pune, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jabal, Vizag, Shilapur, Dhavangiri, Indore, NDMC, Coimbatore, Kakinada, Belgaum, Udaipur, Guwahati, Chennai, Ludhiana, Bhopal.