Union Cabinet gives nod to 100 smart city projects

[Zebra]

Union Cabinet gives nod to 100 smart city projects | Business Standard News

ANI | New Delhi April 29, 2015

The Union Cabinet cleared two proposals on Wednesday-one for 100 smart city projects and another for old housing projects initiated by the previous government.

The NDA Government had announced the Smart City project in July 2014. Earlier this month, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu had said the project will be rolled from May.

The Centre will be a facilitator with regard to smart cities and government will do the hand holding, Naidu informed industry representatives.

Meanwhile, Smart Cities Council India, which has been formed to promote development of smart cities, will launch a guide to help urban planners understand the framework of smart city and take steps to improve city's infrastructure.

 

[Zebra]

PM Narendra Modi's pet 100 Smart Cities project gets Cabinet's approval - The Economic Times

By Ravi Teja Sharma, ET Bureau | 29 Apr, 2015, 02.14PM IST

 

[Zebra]

All states to get at least one smart city: 10 things to know about Modi's pet project - Firstpost

by Sunainaa Chadha Apr 30, 2015 13:48 IST

 

[Sakal Gharelu Ustad]

I don't think anything will happen and this would be just another failed scheme.

 

[Tshering22]

I am so happy to see that the focus is so even across the country.

Here is a list of the 100 smart cities:

Here goes the list of cities that have been approved by Union Cabinet to be upgraded to smart cities
1. Pune - Maharashtra
2. Mumbai - Maharashtra
3. Nagpur - Maharashtra
4. Nashik - Maharashtra
5. Aurangabad - Maharashtra
6. Bhivandi - Maharashtra
7. Calcutta - West Bengal
8. Durgapur - West Bengal
9. Haldia - West Bengal
10. Habra - West Bengal
11. Jangipur - West Bengal
12. Ahmedabad - Gujarat
13. Surat - Gujarat
14. Vadodara - Gujarat
15. Rajkot - Gujarat
16. Bhavnagar - Gujarat
17. Junagadh - Gujarat
18. Gandhi Nagar - Gujarat
19. Bhopal - Madhya Pradesh
20. Indore - Madhya Pradesh
21. Gwalior - Madhya Pradesh
22. Burhanpur - Madhya Pradesh
23. Jabalpur - Madhya Pradesh
24. Chennai - Tamil Nadu
25. Coimbatore - Tamil Nadu
26. Madurai - Tamil Nadu
27. Tiruchirappalli - Tamil Nadu
28. Salem - Tamil Nadu
29. Tirunelveli - Tamil Nadu
30. Bangalore - Karnataka
31. Gulbarga - Karnataka
32. Bidar - Karnataka
33. Bijapur - Karnataka
34. Badami - Karnataka
35. Pattadakal - Karnataka
36. Mahakuta - Karnataka
37. Thiruvananthapuram - Kerala
38. Kollam - Kerala
39. Kottayam - Kerala
40. Tiruvalla - Kerala
41. Ernakulam - Kerala
42. Cochin - Kerala
43. Thrissur - Kerala
44. Hyderabad - Telangana
45. Warangal - Telangana
46. Karimnagar - Telangana
47. Nizamabad - Telaganana
48. Nalgonda - Telangana
49. Guntur - Andhra Pradesh
50. Vijayawada - Andhra Pradesh
51. Kurnool - Andhra Pradesh
52. Chittoor - Andhra Pradesh
53. Kanpur - Uttar Pradesh
54. Allahabad - Uttar Pradesh
55. Lucknow - Uttar Pradesh
56. Jhansi - Uttar Pradesh
57. Faizabad - Uttar Pradesh
58. Varanasi - Uttar Pradesh
59. Jaipur - Rajasthan
60. Ajmer - Rajasthan
61. Bharatpur - Rajasthan
62. Bikaner - Rajasthan
63. Jodhapur - Rajasthan
64. Kota - Rajasthan
65. Udaipur - Rajasthan
66. Ludhiana - Punjab
67. Amritsar - Punjab
68. Jalandhar - Punjab
69. Patiala - Punjab
70. Muzaffarapur - Bihar
71. Patna - Bihar
72. Gaya - Bihar
73. Bhagalpur - Bihar
74. Bihar Sharif - Bihar
75. Faridabad - Haryana
76. Gurgaon - Haryana
77. Panipat - Haryana
78. Ambala - Haryana
79. Guwahati - Assam
80. Tinsukia - Assam
81. Odalguri - Assam
82. Tangla - Assam
83. Goalpara - Assam
84. Bhubaneswar - Odisha
85. Cuttack - Odisha
86. Rourkela - Odisha
87. Sambalpur - Odisha
88. Balasore - Odisha
89. Shimla - Himachal Pradesh
90. Dehradoon - Uttarakhand
91. Haridwar - Uttarakhand
92. Roorkee - Uttarakhand
93. Jamshedpur - Jharkhand
94. Dhanbad - Jharkhand
95. Ranchi - Jharkhand
96. Gangtok - Sikkim
97. Pelling - Sikkim
98. Yuksam - Sikkim
99. Bishnupur - Manipur
100. Chandel - Manipur

#NationinSafeHands

 

[Sakal Gharelu Ustad]

Unrealistic and bound to fail

Building a grid of smart cities - Livemint

One of the big promises made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its election campaign was changing the urban landscape of India by creating smart cities. On Wednesday, the Union government took the first step in that direction by allocating Rs.1 trillion for a five-year urban development plan.
Under the plan, 100 smart cities will be built in the country and selection will be carried out by a "city challenge competition". The other part of the plan is to allocate Rs.50,000 crore for 500 cities for the next five years. This money will be spent on urban renewal in cities with a population of above 100,000. The schemes for this purpose will be designed and implemented by state governments.
On paper, this division of labour—between creating smart cities and renewal of urban infrastructure—seems appropriate if overtly political. The money for 500 cities will placate those cities and states that can't meet the criteria for the smart cities project.
The problem lies, however, elsewhere. As with most Indian plans, the mismatch between demand and supply of funds is being papered over. India has close to 8,000 urban centres of which roughly half are census towns. (A census town has a population in excess of 5,000; 75% of its male working population engaged outside agriculture; a population density of at least 400 persons per sq. km). Going by these numbers, the money required (if each urban centre gets Rs.100 crore) is out of India's reach.
But even the current plan is overly ambitious and is close to being unrealistic. Consider the smart city idea first. Rs.100 crore every year for five years translates into Rs.500 crore. Now compare this sum with the Union urban development ministry's concept note on smart cities. This note defines, in detail, the amenities such cities will be endowed with. From transportation networks to spatial planning to water supply to sewage/sanitation and solid waste management to a clutch of other requirements, these cities are expected to be very different from India's urban sprawl. But a look at these requirements will tell you that Rs.500 crore is a woefully inadequate sum. With the sum that the government is allocating, it will probably be able to develop no more than a handful of cities with those facilities; 100 is too large a number.
This is, however, a bare-bones, purely monetary, criticism of the plan. The bigger problem is that of insufficient imagination of a smart city itself. Consider transportation networking. This is not just an issue of building wide, uncongested roads. In Indian cities, there is no notion of journey planning whereby a resident can quickly plan spot-to-spot travel using all means of transportation, bus, metro, taxi or private vehicle. This is because our public transport systems are non-existent or antiquated. Merely buying more buses won't solve the problem. This, in turn, affects work and life in a much wider way. If a person has to travel 50km to work, then transportation is a handicap and affects employment choices.
The other problem is with the time-horizon for which such plans are crafted and implemented. These are never realistic. The Delhi Metro is a good example. The metro was planned with a certain traffic projection which quickly went awry. The metro is Delhi's lifeline but its congestion is phenomenal. Another example is Mumbai's flyovers. In the 1990s, these were planned and erected to ease congestion. But barely two decades later, the city is back to traffic snarls. The transportation network problem was sorted out piecemeal: flyovers came first, the metro (still being built) two decades later. The contrast with cities such as Helsinki, which truly are smart, is stark. Helsinki's plan to become a city free of private vehicles in the next 10 years is being implemented now.
If India is to be not only a thriving urban economy but also a liveable one, it will need smart cities. There are no two ways about it. It is important, however, to realize our limited planning and execution abilities and keep our targets realistic. It will be wonderful if we can get 100 smart cities. But let us start with a handful at least.