Odisha names five cities for Smart City

The state government has proposed to the Centre to include five cities under the Smart City Mission.

The cities named are Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur. A state-level high power steering committee chaired by chief secretary recently assessed the eligibility of cities for inclusion in the Mission taking into account their performances under various parameters for selection.

There, Bhubaneswar topped the list of cities with a score of 70 per cent followed by Rourkela (61.11 per cent). After these two, Cuttack, Sambalpur and Berhampur were tied with scores of 60 per cent each. "As per the smart city guidelines score card, Bhubaneswar got the highest score of 70 per cent while the scores of three cities - Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur work out to 60 per cent each and Rourkela scored 55 per cent. However, the subsequent clarification issued by the ministry of urban development states that the score (10) for city level Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission reform (part-14) may not be counted and percentage scoring may be done on maximum marks of 90 instead of 100", G Mathi Vathanan, secretary , state housing and urban development department wrote to Sameer Sharma, joint secretary and mission director, Smart City Mission.