India's Smart City List

In June 2015, the 'Smart City' Mission was launched by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a vision to develop 100 cities across the country to make them citizen friendly and sustainable. Now, having said that, there is no exact definition of "what is a smart city?".

As per the official document released by the government. "It (Smart City)means different things to different people. The conceptualisation of Smart City, therefore, varies from city to city and country to country, depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the city residents."

What is the "Smart City Mission"?

The idea is to develop 100 cities as models for their nearby cities and towns. It is not a project where the government is funding states for urban development; it is how the cities have interpreted "smartness."

Each state or country for that matter has a different perspective of a smart city. Indian cities would emphasize on adequate water supply or better infrastructure when compared to a country whose demography is very different.

Smart City Challenge

The Union Ministry of Urban Development is carrying on the whole mission with the state governments. This is the first time a competition has been the deciding factor for choosing cities to fund.

There was a "Smart Cities Challenge" that took place where state governments nominated their cities to compete against each other to receive the benefits of the mission. All states and Union territories except West Bengal are participants of this mission. West Bengal was also a part of it before its state government decided to opt out of it.

 

The "Smart" Plan

It is a five-year program (2017-2022) where Financial aid will be given to cities by central and state governments. The results will be seen from 2022.

Each city selected will create a company with a CEO to implement the mission. The State and Central government will each provide the city with Rs 500 crore for the mission. So this means a total of Rs 1,000 crores in funding from both.

The projects may be executed through joint ventures, subsidiaries, public-private partnership (PPP), turnkey contracts, etc. suitably dovetailed with revenue streams. The additional fund will be raised from the financial market as debt or equity.

 

The First List (January 2016)

20 cities were selected out of 98 nominations in the first round of the challenge. These were called "light houses" meaning they would act as aspiring models for other cities.

Rank	City	State/UT
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	Davangere	Karnataka
11	Indore	Madhya Pradesh
12	New Delhi	New Delhi
13	Coimbatore	Tamil Nadu
14	Kakinada	Andhra Pradesh
15	Belgaum	Karnataka
16	Udaipur	Rajasthan
17	Guwahati	Assam
18	Chennai	Tamil Nadu
19	Ludhiana	Punjab
20	Bhopal	Madhya Pradesh

The Second List

Rank	City	State/UT
1	Lucknow	Uttar Pradesh
2	Bhagalpur	Bihar
3	Faridabad	Haryana
4	Chandigarh	Chandigarh
5	Raipur	Chhattisgarh
6	Ranchi	Jharkhand
7	Dharamasala	Himachal Pradesh
8	Warangal	Telangana
9	Panaji	Goa
10	Agartala	Tripura
11	Imphal	Manipur
12	Port Blair	Andaman & Nicobar
13	New Town Kolkata*	West Bengal

The Third List (September 2016)

Rank	City	State/UT
1	Amritsar	Punjab
2	Kalyan	Maharashtra
3	Ujjain	Madhya Pradesh
4	Tirupati	Andhra Pradesh
5	Nagpur	Maharashtra
6	Mangalore	Karnataka
7	Vellore	Tamil Nadu
8	Thane	Maharashtra
9	Gwalior	Madhya Pradesh
10	Agra	Uttar Pradesh
11	Nashik	Maharashtra
12	Raurkela	Odisha
13	Kanpur	Uttar Pradesh
14	Madurai	Tamil Nadu
15	Tumakuru	Karnataka
16	Kota	Rajasthan
17	Thanjavur	Tamil Nadu
18	Namchi	Sikkim
19	Jalandhar	Punjab
20	Shimoga	Karnataka
21	Salem	Tamil Nadu
22	Ajmer	Rajasthan
23	Varanasi	Uttar Pradesh
24	Kohima	Nagaland
25	Hubli-Dharwad	Karnataka
26	Aurangabad	Maharashtra
27	Vadodara	Gujarat

The Fourth List (June 2017)

Rank	City	State/UT
1	Thiruvananthapuram	Kerala
2	Naya Raipur	Chhattisgarh
3	Rajkot	Gujarat
4	Amravati	Maharashtra [29]
5	Patna	Bihar
6	Karimnagar	Telengana
7	Muzaffarpur	Bihar
8	Puducherry	Pondicherry
9	Gandhinagar	Gujarat
10	Srinagar	Jammu and Kashmir
11	Sagar	Madhya Pradesh
12	Karnal	Haryana
13	Satna	Madhya Pradesh
14	Bangalore	Karnataka
15	Shimla	Himachal Pradesh
16	Dehradun	Uttarakhand
17	Tiruppur	Tamil Nadu
18	Pimpri Chinchwad	Maharashtra
19	Bilaspur	Chhattisgarh
20	Pasighat	Arunachal Pradesh
21	Jammu	Jammu and Kashmir
22	Dahod	Gujarat
23	Tirunelveli	Tamil Nadu
24	Thoothukudi	Tamil Nadu
25	Tiruchirappalli	Tamil Nadu
26	Jhansi	Uttar Pradesh
27	Aizawl	Mizoram
28	Allahabad	Uttar Pradesh
29	Aligarh	Uttar Pradesh
30	Gangtok	Sikkim

The Fifth List (January 2018)

City	State/ UT
Bareilly	Uttar Pradesh
Moradabad	Uttar Pradesh
Saharanpur	Uttar Pradesh
Erode	Tamil Nadu
Bihar Sharif	Bihar
Silvasa	Dadra and Nagar Haveli
Diu	Daman and Diu
Kavarati	Lakshdweep
Itanagar	Arunachal Pradesh