Twelve States are expected to lead the urban transformation in the country under the Government’s smart cities mission and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).

Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Telangana and Chhattisgarh will account for 70 per cent of cities to be developed under these two schemes, a senior official in the Ministry of Urban Development said.

Of these 12 lead states, 8 are under the rule of BJP or its allies, accounting for about half of smart cities to be developed and 225 of 476 AMRUT cities identified so far.

For smart cities, Uttar Pradesh will get to nominate 13 cities for the ‘City Challenge’ competition, while Tamil Nadu can nominate 12. Maharashtra can pitch 10 cities, followed by Madhya Pradesh (7) and Gujarat (6) and Karnataka (6). Each state in the north-east can nominate only one city for the challenge, the official added.

Geographical equity has been taken into consideration to ensure that each State/UT gets to develop at least one smart city.

Each state has been assigned a certain number of cities they can nominate which will participate in the second stage of ‘inter-city’ competition among all 100 such cities. From this, top 20 will be chosen for funding during this fiscal. Post this, 40 cities will be selected for financing in 2016-17 and the remaining 40 in the next year.

For AMRUT, under which 500 cities are expected to be rejuvenated, at present 476 have been identified. As many as 64 cities have been identified in Uttar Pradesh for this scheme, followed by Maharashtra (37), Tamil Nadu (33), Madhya Pradesh (33), Gujarat (31), and Andhra Pradesh (31). Among other states, 30 cities have been identified for Rajasthan, followed by West Bengal (28), Haryana (19), Punjab (17), Telangana (15), Chhattisgarh (10).

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