Bhubaneswar, Pune and Jaipur, which are among the 20 cities chosen under the Centre’s smart cities programme, aim to retrofit areas using smart cities mission funds, converge national schemes with State schemes and leverage public-private partnership for various projects.

Arindam Guha, Senior Director, Deloitte in India, said, “There are no winners or losers here. The really smart cities will build on the effort already put into developing the smart city plans and take some of the implementation forward, especially those that do not require significant financial outlays such as increasing walkability by improving pavements or are largely supported by private investment like wi-fi facilities in public spaces, beautification of public places through corporate sponsorships or advertisements.”

While Bhubaneswar’s proposal at a project cost of ₹4,537 crore aims to retrofit and redevelop 985 acres around the main railway station, Pune, which has identified 19 ICT solutions for mobility and water, wants to invest in retrofitting 900 acres of residential area at an estimated cost of ₹3,000 crore. Across the 20 winners, a total investment of ₹50,802 crore has been proposed over a five-year period. Of this, ₹38,693 crore will be spent on area development and ₹12,109 crore on a total of 56 pan-city solutions.

“The cities comprise a mix from all regions of India with high economic and industrial potential. If robust IT frameworks, connectivity and digitisation are enabled in smart cities, there will be a marked improvement in the quality of infrastructure, which could ultimately lead to higher economic activity as corporates will prefer setting up offices in these cities,” Sanjay Dutt, Managing Director, India, Cushman & Wakefield, said.

Of the 20 cities, 18 have come forward with retrofitting proposals, Ahmedabad with both retrofitting and redevelopment and Bhopal will only take up redevelopment.

Bhopal wants to redevelop 350 acres of government land at a cost of ₹3,440 crore through pan-city revenue, redevelopment revenue, grants and budget allocation, among others.

About 550 acres in the New Delhi City Centre, consisting of Connaught Place and surrounding areas, will be retrofitted at a cost of ₹1,897 crore.

Chennai has proposed Intelligent Traffic Management System to integrate public transport network, video surveillance to monitor encroachments of footpath and water management, including a disaster management system for floods and a tsunami monitoring and warning system.

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