The Minister of Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu has approved 98 cities of the initially submitted 100 cities, to participate in the Government's smart city plan for the country. According to the minister, these 98 cities cover a population of 13 crore people or around 35% of the urban population. City selection process: Cities were selected by state governments to potentially participate in the Smart City initiative. On the basis of this list, 100 potential Smart Cities were announced post which each potential Smart City prepared a proposal with the help from various external agencies like World Bank, UN Habitat etc. Once this proposal was submitted, it was evaluated by a panel of experts and the finalized cities will now be able to start implementing their plans. Cities that haven’t been selected will be able to improve their proposal and submit during the next round. The full list was tweeted by the Pune Municipal commissioner: Pune makes it to List of 98 smart cities declared by GoI today!!!! Congratulations to all of us.. pic.twitter.com/NeY0vaYzlL — Kunal Kumar (@KunalKumarPMC) August 27, 2015 Smart City features: The government outlined some of the features included in typical development plans submitted by cities: - Relying on online services to bring accountability and transparency in a cost effective way. Encourage the use of mobile services without having to go to municipal offices, and to form e groups to listen to people and get feedback. This will include online monitoring of programs and cyber tours of worksites. -…
