Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi had finally bagged the coveted smart city tag as the Government announced 27 more cities under the flagship smart cities mission on Tuesday.

The holy city has ranked 23rd among 27 cities. Amritsar has topped the second round of smart city competition.

"The 27 cities selected in this round have proposed a total investment of Rs 66,883 crore, 79 per cent of which is in area-based development and rest 21 per cent in pan city solutions," Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said.

Maharashtra with 5 cities, and Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with 4 cities each bagged the lion's share in this list. Uttar Pradesh, which will witness elections next year, has 3 cities namely Agra, Kanpur and Varanasi in this round.

In January this year, 20 winning cities which were announced under the first round covered only 12 States and Union Territories. The Government had then decided to conduct a ‘fast-track competition’ to offer an opportunity to the highest ranked city in each of the unrepresented 23 States and UTs.

In May this year, the Ministry of Urban Development had announced 13 more winners of the smart city tag under the fast-track round.

With the announcement of 27 cities on Monday, as many as 60 cities have bagged the smart city tag till date.

"A total investment of Rs 1,44,742 crore has been proposed by these 60 cities," Naidu added.

The selection process of remaining 40 cities under the '100 smart cities' mission will commence in January 2017, he added.

The Cabinet has approved Rs 48,000 crore, that is almost Rs 100 crore per city per year for five years for the mission. States have to match this amount and gather funds via PPP and convergence from other schemes.

[The table attached is cities in alphabetical order (not in the order of merit)]

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW