Lucknow, Dharamsala join 11 others in 2nd Smart City list

The 13 cities selected in the fast-track competition have proposed a total investment of Rs 30,229 crore.

The names of 13 more cities were announced Tuesday for being developed under the Centre’s “Smart City Mission”, with Lucknow, the capital of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, topping the list, followed by Warangal in Telangana and Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.

Under the Smart City Mission, 100 cities across India will be developed as “smart cities” by 2019-20, with the Centre providing Rs 48,000 crore in financial support over five years.

Other cities included in this round are Chandigarh, Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Kolkata’s New Town, Bhagalpur (Bihar), Panaji (Goa), Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Imphal (Manipur), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura) and Faridabad (Haryana). While four are from BJP-ruled states (Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jharkhand and Haryana), two are from the Congress-run states of Himachal Pradesh and Manipur.

Twenty-three cities with higher rankings from as many states and Union territories, that failed to get selected in the first round of the competition held in January, took part in the “fast track competition”, whose results were announced by urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday. Of these, only 13 could qualify for the smart city project.

“The 13 cities selected in the fast-track competition have proposed a total investment of Rs 30,229 crore. With this, the investment proposed by 33 cities (20 cities listed in January and 13 cities now) under the smart city project is now Rs 80,789 crore,” Mr Naidu said at a press conference.