Modi’s Gandhinagar, Sonia’s Rae Bareli vie for final smart city slots
CENTRE IS PROVIDING ₹48,000 CRORE OVER 5 YEARS FOR THE MISSION. A MATCHING FUND WILL BE CONTRIBUTED BY A COMBINATION OF STATES AND THE PVT SECTOR
Gandhinagar, the capital of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat, will compete with cities including Navi Mumbai, Chennai, Lucknow, Allahabad, and Rae Bareli when the Centre selects the remaining 40 of 100 smart cities on June 23.
The project is intended to change the way urban Indians live. Smart cities are supposed to enjoy uninterrupted power and water supplies, free internet connectivity, effective e-governance, and newly updated infrastructure.
The Centre is providing ₹48,000 crore over five years for the smart cities mission. A matching fund will be contributed by a combination of states and the private sector. Each city will get ₹100 crore per year.
The process of selecting smart cities involves two stages. The first occurs at the level of states, which select their own candidates following a competition. The nominated cities then compete with each other nationally.
Selection is based on the scores cities receive for carrying out urban reforms in areas such as sanitation and governance. Cities that score the highest nationally get picked for the project.
The distribution of smart cities across India is determined by a formula worked out by the urban development ministry. It factors in a state’s population and its number of municipalities and large towns.
Work on new projects has already started in 20 cities that were selected in January 2016, but the 40 cities that were selected in July and September haven’t started yet. The government hopes to have 100 official smart cities by 2022.