A ‘smart city’ is a city with basic infrastructure that uses smart solutions to provide a decent quality of life, and a clean, and sustainable environment. Smart cities concentrate on their most pressing demands and potential to improve people’s lives. To make a difference, they use a variety of strategies, including digital and information technologies, best practices in urban planning, public-private partnerships, and policy change. They constantly prioritize people.
Uttar Pradesh, the most populated state, has the most cities in the Centre’s Rs 48,000-crore scheme to construct 100 smart cities, with 13. Tamil Nadu is followed by Maharashtra with ten cities, Karnataka and Gujarat with six cities each, and West Bengal and Rajasthan with four cities each. Bengaluru, Patna, Kolkata, Noida, and Gurgaon are among the major cities missing from the list.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India’s 100 Smart Cities Mission on June 25, 2015. The Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission is an urban redevelopment and retrofitting program aimed at developing smart cities that are both citizen-friendly and sustainable. With an influx of people moving to cities and areas rapidly expanding, the government is seeking better ways to manage complexities, increase efficiency, and improve quality of life. As a result, cities must monitor and integrate infrastructure in order to better optimize resources and provide better services to inhabitants.
The state of Uttar Pradesh has submitted a list of 13 cities to the Indian government for development as Smart Cities. Apart from the state capital, Lucknow, seven cities in western Uttar Pradesh i.e., Ghaziabad, Meerut, Aligarh, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Bareilly, Agra, and Rampur have been designated as Smart Cities under the Centre’s criteria. Apart from Jhansi, Allahabad, and Kanpur Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency, Varanasi has also been recommended for consideration.
UP chief commissioners and chairpersons of municipalities reviewed the selection of cities on Wednesday, and infrastructure secretary Alok Ranjan instructed mayors, and municipal facilities in their respective towns to improve their prospects of being picked for development as a Smart City.
Uttar Pradesh is entitled to have 13 of its cities built as smart cities under the Centre’s smart city initiative. However, just 12 names have been decided upon thus far. Raebareli and Meerut are a tie for the 13th city, and the final name has yet to be announced.
These 20 cities were picked from a list of 98 cities that were considered under the SCM and will be the first to begin the process of becoming “smart cities.”
Smart cities are surely one of the stepping stones to development but it is not the solution to the urbanization crisis which India is facing currently. Rather than a purely technological vision, the plan should recognize that the rich existence of cities is dependent on variety and enabling conditions.
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