India News

The government of India has today announced the names of 13 more cities, to develop under Centre's 'Smart City Mission', with Lucknow in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh topping the list, followed by Warangal in Telangana.

23 cities with the higher rankings in the country, could not get representation in the first round of competition held in January. All those cities have participated in “Fast Track Competition”, out of which, 13 cities were selected for the smart city projects through the fresh competition. 

Raipur (Chattisgarh), New Town Kolkata, Chandigarh, Bhagalpur (Bihar), Panaji (Goa), Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Imphal (Manipur), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura) and Faridabad (Haryana).

Announcing about the same, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, “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 announced in January and 13 cities today) under the smart city plans is now Rs 80, 789 crore.”

Adding further, the minister said that, 7 capital cities - Patna (Bihar), Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Naya Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), Bengaluru (Karnataka) and Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala)- which were not included in the 100 cities, will be able to participate in the next round with other cities.