States to Participate in ‘Smart City Challenge’

Following the series of competition of dance, singing and cooking, a new competition is on the cards. You must have heard about the evolution of 100 smart cities as announced by NDA government in July 2014. Time has come for the implementation of the concept. A big question mark was on everybody’s mind- how these cities will be chosen for the advancement? Clearing your ambiguity over this, government has announced that a ‘city challenge’ is likely to happen in which states will compete among them.

Partnership and Agreement

Smart city project is to be coordinated with Union Urban Development Authority. After the final nomination by states, a panel at central government will make the decision. Size of the city, population, infrastructure and potential of up gradation will be the key considerations while making the list. First round of 20 cities’ selection will be completed by the end of this year. Rest 80 will be finalized in the subsequent phases. Many countries have shown their interest in smart city project and have signed partnership pacts. Agreement is yet not signed as it will happen only after the selection of cities. However, officials have shown some indications about the cities such as Varanasi, Vishakhapatnam, Ajmer and Allahabad.

Drift of Development

However, take off of this concept is slow but the concept has received significant attention over worldwide. Till now the countries that have expressed their interest are United States, China, Germany, Japan, Spain, Netherlands, France and Singapore. These countries will bring the technical expertise whereas financial structure and types of smart cities’ works is under progress. Karuna Gopal, the President of Foundation for Futuristic Cities (FFC), in a recent conference said that government has showcased the Amsterdam’s smart cities experience. Government is currently working on the standards of the project and FFC is a knowledge partner of the government for this project.

Fundamental of Funds  

Earlier the cost of the project was estimated as Rupees 35, 000 Crore but the government is reworking on it. The budget of 2014-15 has allocated Rupees 7, 016 Crore, out of it only Rupees 924 Crore were spent. So, government reduced the fund allocation in next annual budget to Rupees 143 Crore. According to new format of funding states and the industry involved in the development of smart city’s development will share the maximum part. Also the smart city development will be based on the retrofitting model.  

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