Centre will be ready with smart cities list by January 16

With the evaluation process of 97 smart city plans already under way, the Ministry of Urban Development will be ready with the list of top 20 cities under the second stage of ‘City Challenge Competition’ by mid-January.

The three teams constituted by the Centre to evaluate proposals submitted by cities have two members each, one foreigner and one Indian. The teams have been given one month — December 16 to January 16 — to complete the evaluation and ranking process, a senior official in the Ministry of Urban Development said.

The average marks given by these three teams will be used for the ranking.

“Out of the 97 smart city aspirants, 60 plans that have been analysed have proposed 145 pan-city solutions,” the official told BusinessLine.

Out of these 145 solutions, 27 pertain to using ICT for enhancing e-governance, 21 for smart water management, including smart meters, 20 solutions aim to improve solid waste management, 16 for smart public transport, another 16 for using LED streetlights, and 14 propose installing CCTV cameras for safety.

Pan-city solution is among the mandatory components of a smart city. According to the guidelines, each city must propose at least two pan-city solutions.

“Moreover, out of 97 cities, nine have proposed setting up of control and command centres for monitoring the city’s traffic and water supply, six cities have proposed smart apps for citizens, five cities have proposed providing WiFi, six cities have suggested smart corridors, and four cities have suggested GIS mapping of smart solutions,” the official added.

Proposals will be judged by the Centre on credibility of implementation, city vision and strategy, economic and environmental impacts, cost effectiveness, innovation and scalability and processes followed, including citizen implementation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to announce the winners of the ‘smart cities mission’ before Republic Day on January 26 next month.