Smart cities 2016: Lucknow, Dharmashala, Chandigarh to be smart cities

The Union Urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu has announced 13 more smart cities those who have top under the mission. The cities include Lucknow, Warangal, Dharmashala, Chandigarh, Raipur, New Town Kolkata, Bhagalpur, Panaji, Port Blair, Imphal, Ranchi, Agartala and Faridabad. In the new list Lucknow tops the list.

Earlier, in January this year, the top 20 winning cities under the first round were announced which covered only 12 states and union territories.  All these 23 cities and had submitted proposals last month.

These 23 cities were Warangal, Chandigarh, Lucknow, New Town Kolkata, Goa, Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh), Dharmashala, Faridabad, Raipur, Bhagalpur (Bihar), Shillong (Meghalaya), Namchi (Sikkim), Port Blair, Diu, Oulgaret (Puducherry), Silvassa (Dadra & Nagar Haveli), Imphal (Manipal), Ranchi, Agartala, Kohima, Kavaratti (Lakshadweep) and Dehradun.

Meanwhile, for the regular second round of the competition, the remaining 97 cities have to submit revised smart city plans by June end this year.

The Centre has proposed a financial support of ₹48,000 crore over five years, on an average ₹100 crore per city per year. States have to match this amount.

Over 20 smart cities were selected during 2015-16 as per the Mission guidelines, another 40 would be selected during 2016-17 and the remaining 40 during the next financial year.

Each city selected in different rounds of competition will be given central assistance of Rs 200 crore in the first year and Rs 100 crore each during the subsequent three financial years.

State governments and respective urban local bodies will provide matching funds to the same amount.