Tamil Nadu seeks time to submit 12 proposals later due to floods; Telangana seeks to replace Hyderabad

Continuous monitoring by UD Ministry at Secretary level and handholding bears fruit

30 foreign companies associated with smart city plans of 45 mission cities

            85 of the 98 cities included in the Smart City Mission have submitted city level Smart City Proposals to the Ministry of Urban Development within the stipulated time. While 17 proposals were submitted yesterday, 68 proposals were received in the Ministry today, the last day  for submission.

            While Tamil Nadu Government, preoccupied with flood management in Chennai and other parts of the state could not submit the proposals, Telangana Government sought to replace Hyderabad in the Smart City Mission by another city, to be communicated later.

            Continuous monitoring and handholding by the senior officials of the Ministry of Urban Development helped the states and urban local bodies meet the deadline for submission of smart city proposals. Shri Madhusudhan Prasad, Secretary (Urban Development) was in regular contact with Chief Secretaries of almost all the states monitoring progress and advising in preparation of proposals.

            The Ministry organized three Smart City Consultation Workshops, one Smart City Ideas Camp, five rounds of Webinars (online consultations with Mission Director seeking clarifications) and one Proposal Enhancement Workshop to enable states and urban local bodies formulate proposals as per Mission Guidelines.

            Ministry of Urban Development also provided 8 Region-wise panels of consultants so that states and urban local bodies could chose consultants for preparation of smart city proposals through tendering, thereby saving on time.

            30 foreign companies from 20 leading countries have been associated with preparation of smart city proposals of 45 mission cities. These include : KPMG, KcKinsey, CISCO Systems, Price Waterhouse Coopers, DeloiteToucheTohmastsu, Jones Lang La Salle, Dorsh Holding GmbH, Knight Frank, Tractabel Engineering SA, Haskoning DHV Consulting Pvt Ltd., Grant Thornton, Happold Engineers, Ecorys Netherlands BV etc.

            Cities with which foreign companies were associated in preparation of smart city proposals include: New Delhi Municipal Council, Agartala, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bhagalpur, Bhabaneshwar, Bhopal, Greater Mumbai, Ghaziabad,  Lucknow, Ludhiana, Pune, New Town Kolkata, Kota, Ranchi, Rourkela, Ujjain, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Tumakuru (Karnataka) etc.

            Total population of 98 mission cities is 13 crore accounting for 35% of country’s urban population. 8 of these have population of below one lakh each, 3 towns have population between one and two lakhs, 30 cities between 2 to 5 lakhs, 22 between 5 and 10 lakhs, 25 in the range of 10 to 25 lakhs, 5 between 25 and 50 lakhs and 5 cities have population above 50 lakhs.

            Capital cities not included in Smart City Mission are : Bengaluru, Gangtok, , Itanagar, Kolkata, Patna, Shimla and Trivendrum.

Smart City Proposals received are :

AAR