Smart Cities declared: Find out if your city is 'smart'

What is the Smart City Project?
This is a Rs 48,000 crore urban development and renewal project initiated by the Government of India. The government’s idea is that existing cities should be upgraded rather than developing new ones. To become a Smart City, a city has to fulfil numerous criteria that include service levels, existing infrastructure and track record.

How does the Smart City Project Work?
Under this project 100 cities have been identified based on certain selection criteria in two stages.
- Each selected city will be provided central assistance of Rs 100 crore per year. Guidelines for Smart Cities stipulate central assistance to be used only for infrastructure projects which have larger public benefit.

- Minimum area norm for Retrofitting is 500 acres; for Redevelopment-50 acres; for Green Field projects-250 acres. This will be 50% for North-Eastern and Himalayan states.

- Benchmarks to be achieved include: 10% of energy needs to be met from renewable sources, 80% of building construction to be green and 35% of housing in green field projects to be for economically weaker sections.

- Special Purpose Vehicles to be set up for implementation of smart city plans with 50:50 equity of States and Urban Local Bodies

- An Inter-departmental Task Force to be set up to coordinate all aspects of smart city development.

What is the process of Smart City selection?

Stage 1

Stage 1 was the City Challenge Competition where every state and union territory had to score their cities based on certain criteria. The points system was used to score these cities in Stage 1 – e.g. existing service levels (25 points), institutional systems and capacities (15 points), self-financing (30 points) and past track record (30 points). The cities not selected for Stage 1 can compete again by improving their scores.

Stage 2

Cities that were top scorers moved to Stage 2. The 100 potential Smart Cities that were nominated had to prepare Smart City Plans and submit them. In the first round of stage 2, the financing prioritisation took place. 20 top scoring cities will be chosen for financing this year. 40 cities each will be selected in the subsequent rounds.

Note: 98 cities have been chosen so far; remaining two cities will be announced in due course.