Chennai and Coimbatore Among the 20 Cities Selected for the Smart Makeover

Chennai, India, January 29, 2016 (Newswire.com) - The Government of India on 28th Jan announced a list of 20 cities to be developed as smart cities. A total investment of Rs.50,802 crores has been proposed for this smart city initiative. Bhubaneshwar emerged on top of the list, which also include Chennai and Coimbatore as part of the first batch of cities selected for the smart makeover.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tweeted “I wish the cities the very best as they move forward with implementation and transform urban India”.

The Government of India on 28th Jan announced a list of 20 cities to be developed as smart cities. A total investment of Rs.50,802 crores has been proposed for this smart city initiative.

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Releasing the list, Hon’ble Minister for Urban Development, Mr.Venkaiah Naidu said, that it was a tough competition to select the first batch of 20 cities among the list of 97 cities forwarded by their respective state governments.

The final list includes the following cities, Bhubaneshwar, Pune, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, Visakhapatnam, Solapur, Davanagere, Indore, New Delhi Municipal Corporation, Coimbatore, Kakinada, Belgaum, Udaipur, Guwahati, Chennai, Ludhiana and Bhopal.

Mr.Venkaiah Naidu also said that the smart city initiative will provide the cities with uninterrupted power and water supply, complete sanitation and waste management systems, efficient public transportation, IT Connectivity and e-governance mechanisms.

People of Chennai will be having a sigh of relief and hope for an urban reform in this smart city initiative, as the city was severely devastated by the floods last year due to poor urban planning and infrastructure.

The government hopes to develop these cities by 2022 to cope with the swelling population of these cities, which is set to rise to 814 million by 2050 from the present 400 million.

Both the Centre and the state will split the overall cost of the project and the centre will be allocating Rs.100 crore every year to each city selected in the list.

The government is also planning to add 40 more cities to be developed as smart cities in the future.