The Government has announced the 20 winners of the Smart City Challenge competition for financing during this financial year. Announcing the cities, Minister of Urban Development M.Venkaiah Naidu said that the winners were from 11 states and the Union Territory of Delhi and the selection was totally objective and transparent based on standardized processes, a government release observed.

The Smart City Mission marks a paradigm shift towards urban development in the country since it is based on ‘bottom up’ approach with the involvement of citizens in formulation of city vision and smart city plans and the urban local bodies and state governments piloting the mission with little say for the Ministry of Urban Development. He also observed that it was for the first time in the country and even in the world that investments in urban sector are being made based on competition based selection of cities.

Informing that 1.52 crore citizens participated in shaping smart city plans of 97 cities and towns in the first round of competition, this enthusiastic participation of people is a major positive outcome, the release said.

Three cities from Madhya Pradesh, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and one each from the remaining five made it to the winning list. (See table.)

The 23 states and UTs who could not make to the list of winners will be given an opportunity to participate in a ‘fast track competition’. Each top ranking city form these left out states can upgrade their smart city proposals and submit them by April 15, this year for inclusion in the mission, the release noted.

Shri Naidu informed that the 20 winning cities and towns have proposed a total investment of Rs.50,802 cr over five years with all the cities proposing Public-Private-Partnership as a major vehicle of resource mobilization. 10 of the 20 cities have proposed to mobilise Rs.8,521 crore under PPP model while others have also indicated this option. A total area of 26,735 acres has been identified by these cities for making them smart through necessary interventions.

Of these 20 cities accounting for a total population of 3.54 crore, 5 have population below 5 lakh each whereas only one—Ahmedabad—has population of over 50 lakh.

List of 20 Smart Cities
Rank City State
1 Bhubaneswar Odisha
2 Pune Maharashtra
3 Jaipur Rajasthan
4. Surat Gujarat
5 Kochi Kerala
6 Ahmedabad Gujarat
7 Jabalpur Madhya Pradesh
8 Visakhapatnam Andhra Pradesh
9 |Solapur Maharashtra
10 Davanagere Karnataka
11 Indore Madhya Pradesh
12 New Delhi Municipal Council Delhi
13 Combaitore Tamil Nadu
14 Kakinada Andhra Pradesh
15 Belagavi Karnataka
16 Udaipur Rajasthan
17 Guwahati Assam
18 Chennai Tamil Nadu
19 Ludhiana Punjab
20 Bhopal Madhya Pradesh

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