Govt plans 20 smart cities to come up in first phase

The Ministry of Urban Development is planning to select 20 cities in the first phase to develop as smart cities by the end of this year.

The ministry, which is giving final shape to the smart cities project, will likely to select remaining 80 cities in phased manner.

The NDA government, which announced to set up 100 smart cities, is working on to start the project in a mission mode from October this year.

Cities like Ajmer, Allahabad, Visakhapatnam and Varanasi are expected to make their entry in the final list, sources in the ministry told Deccan Herald.

As per the plan, the Ministry will seek four to five possible cities names from the states and an expert panel appointed by the Ministry will zero in two to three places in each state based on its size, population, infrastructure level and upgrade potential for development.

To avoid the complaint of favoritism, the ministry has decided leave the decision to selection of places to expert committee than the ministry of officials, sources said.

Though several countries like Singapore, Japan, the US, Spain, China, Germany, France and the Netherlands have expressed interest in the project, agreements will by signed with foreign countries only after selection of the cities, sources said.

While foreign countries bring technical experts, the ministry, is still working on financial model of the project.

The ministry is working on cost of the project, which is estimated to be around Rs 35,000 crore per annum. The 2014-15 union budget allocated total Rs 7,016 crore for the project but only Rs 924 crore has been spent so far.

Though the allocation for 2015-16 has been brought down to Rs 143 crore, the Urban Development Ministry is working on new funding pattern as the Centre wants that the state should also have to spend sizable amount for the project.

The ministry also plans to form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for each of the cities to execute the ambitious project.