AKIPRESS.COM - Urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday announced the first list of 20 cities to be developed as Smart Cities, with Bhubaneswar topping the list and Pune and Jaipur coming in second and third respectively.

The others on the list include Surat, Kochi and Ahmedabad.

These cities will be developed to have basic infrastructure through assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation.

“The states selected cities and sent us a list of 97 names. There was a competition among these names and 20 cities have been selected,” Naidu told a news conference. “Bottom up approach has been the key planning principle under Smart City Mission,” he said.

In the subsequent years, the government will announce 40 cities each to be developed as smart cities as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to develop 100 smart cities in the country.

“Congrats to winners of Smart City Challenge. I wish the cities the very best as they move forward with implementation and transform urban India,” Modi tweeted on Thursday.

“I thank all those who took part in the comprehensive deliberations on various forums to decide winners of Smart City Challenge,” he added.

The government plans to build these smart cities by 2022 to help accommodate its swelling urban population, which is set to rise by more than 400 million people to 814 million by 2050.