Smart Cities nominated

The Centre announced the names of 98 urban centres and cities nominated by the state governments for the “Smart City“ scheme. Two dozen state capitals, 24 economic and business hubs and 18 urban areas of cultural and tourism importance are on the list.
Announcing the nominations, urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu said it was a good signal that 65 small and medium towns and cities have made it to the list of smart city aspirants. Several big cities including state capitals such as Kolkata, Bengaluru, Patna, Thiruvananthapuram and Shimla have failed to make the cut.
The identified 98 urban areas, which fall under municipal jurisdictions, will cover about 13 crore people accounting for over 35% of the country's total urban population.
The big metros that have made to the list include Ahmedabad, Greater Mumbai, Chennai and Greater Hyderabad. Number of urban local bodies such as New Delhi Municipal Council, Lucknow, Jaipur, Allahabad, Vishakhapatnam, Gandhinagar, Surat, Kochi, Bhopal and Navi Mumbai have also found place.“Making them (cities) smart will make them engines of economic growth besides giving decent life to the citizens,“ Naidu said adding that Smart City and AMRUT (scheme to rejuvenate 500 towns) schemes are the “safest“ for investors to put in their money.
Naidu said the Centre will release Rs.2 crore each for the 98 nominated urban areas in the next couple of days so that they can prepare plans.