Odisha to propose five cities for Smart City Mission

The state government will propose to the Centre to include the names of five cities in the Smart City Mission of the Union government.

The cities to be recommended are Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur. The names were chosen at a high-level meeting held today at the state secretariat.

Given the challenges involved in developing 100 smart cities, the capable cities will be chosen under the Smart Cities Mission through a two-stage competition. In the Stage-1 of City Challenge Competition, each state and Union territory will score all their cities based on a set of criteria and nominate the top scorers as per the indicated number of potential smart cities for participation in the Stage-2 of the competition.

As per the central guidelines, Bhubaneswar city with 70 points (out of 100) led the pack followed by steel city Rourkela with 61.11 points. The points scored by Cuttack, Sambalpur and Berhampur stood at 60 each.

"Bhubaneswar stood numero uno. Rourkela, Cuttack Sambalpur and Berhampur cities will be recommended to the Centre for inclusion in the Smart City Mission", said Sisir Kumar Ratho, special secretary, state housing & urban development.