Narendra Modi government receives 85 out of 98 smart city proposals

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi government has received 85 of the 98 Smart City proposals from states and union territories (UTs). The total investment proposed in the 85 city plans is around Rs 2.5 lakh crore.

Day before yesterday (December, 15) was the last date for submission of Smart City Proposals to the Ministry of Urban Development

“While Tamil Nadu Government, preoccupied with flood management in Chennai and other parts of the state could not submit the proposals, Telangana Government sought to replace Hyderabad in the Smart City Mission by another city, to be communicated later,” said Ministry of Urban Development.

Continuous monitoring and handholding by the senior officials of the Ministry of Urban Development helped the states and urban local bodies meet the deadline for submission of smart city proposals.

Madhusudhan Prasad, Secretary (Urban Development) was in regular contact with Chief Secretaries of almost all the states monitoring progress and advising in preparation of proposals.

The Ministry organized three Smart City Consultation Workshops, one Smart City Ideas Camp, five rounds of Webinars (online consultations with Mission Director seeking clarifications) and one Proposal Enhancement Workshop to enable states and urban local bodies formulate proposals as per Mission Guidelines.

Ministry of Urban Development also provided 8 Region-wise panels of consultants so that states and urban local bodies could chose consultants for preparation of smart city proposals through tendering, thereby saving on time.

“30 foreign companies from 20 leading countries have been associated with preparation of smart city proposals of 45 mission cities. These include : KPMG, KcKinsey, CISCO Systems, Price Waterhouse Coopers, DeloiteToucheTohmastsu, Jones Lang La Salle, Dorsh Holding GmbH, Knight Frank, Tractabel Engineering SA, Haskoning DHV Consulting Pvt Ltd., Grant Thornton, Happold Engineers, Ecorys Netherlands BV etc,” said Ministry of Urban Development.

“Cities with which foreign companies were associated in preparation of smart city proposals include: New Delhi Municipal Council, Agartala, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bhagalpur, Bhabaneshwar, Bhopal, Greater Mumbai, Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Pune, New Town Kolkata, Kota, Ranchi, Rourkela, Ujjain, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Tumakuru (Karnataka) etc,” it said.

“Total population of 98 mission cities is 13 crore accounting for 35% of country’s urban population. 8 of these have population of below one lakh each, 3 towns have population between one and two lakhs, 30 cities between 2 to 5 lakhs, 22 between 5 and 10 lakhs, 25 in the range of 10 to 25 lakhs, 5 between 25 and 50 lakhs and 5 cities have population above 50 lakhs,” according to official statement.

Lastly, states capital are not included in Smart City Mission are : Bengaluru, Gangtok, , Itanagar, Kolkata, Patna, Shimla and Trivendrum.