Government announce 13 smart city winners

With the latest addition of 13 more cities, the smart cities mission has made inroads into 25 states/UTs in India. If we were to look at the Smart city and AMRUT qualifying cities together, they account for close to 70% of the total urban population of India. It is exciting to see that these qualifying cities now have a long-term five year action plans based on a comprehensive analysis of gaps in their public amenities and utilities and this is a step in the right direction if we want to see more cities emerging as economic centres to reduce the pressure on select big cities. The latest list is a good mix of prominent industrial and cosmopolitan cities along with, state capitals as well as Tier 3 and 4 cities and bodes well for a holistic approach to developing existing cities as Smart Cities. The geographic spread of the new list also shows encouraging signs of development being also focused towards the eastern and north-eastern part of the country where infrastructure development is vital, in line with Modi’s vision to develop the east.