UD Ministry accepts Bloomberg Philanthropies as Knowledge Partner for Smart Cities Mission

Work on selection of Smart City aspirants to begin soon

The Ministry of Urban Development has accepted the offer of Bloomberg Philanthropies (BP) for cooperation in conducting the 'Cities Challenge' competition for selecting the cities for financing under the Smart Cities Mission of the Government. A letter of acceptance in this regard was issued by the Ministry to BP.

Bloomberg Philanthropies will act as Knowledge Partner for the Smart Cities Mission. BP's support for the Mission include :

-Assisting the Ministry in the design and implementation of the process for selection of cities;

-Designing and delivery of a capacity development programme for applicant urban local bodies for participation in the competition based selection of cities with focus on innovation and citizen participation in formulating smart city proposals; and

-Formulating and execution of effective communication and branding strategy for Cities Challenge to enable wider public participation.

The Mission for building 100 Smart Cities was approved by the Union Cabinet on April 29, 2015. Under this Mission, central government will spend Rs.48,000 cr over the next five years for providing an assistance of Rs.100 cr per year for each selected city.

In the first phase of the selection of smart city aspirants, each State will nominate a set of cities based on urban population and number of statutory cities for inclusion under the Smart Cities Mission. This nomination will be based on a set of identified criteria to be suggested by the Ministry of Urban Development. All such 100 nominated cities will be rigorously scrutinized against identified criteria for extending financial support by the centre. Cities which are found to be deficient in some aspects would be given to address the same and participate in the next round of competition.

States and Urban Local Bodies will be required to match Centre's contribution for the development of each city and mobilize additional resources required from various sources including through PPP model. Accordingly, Centre and States/Urban Local Bodies will spend about one lakh crores on development of Smart Cities over the next five years.

Bloomberg Philanthropies, founded by former Mayor of New York Mr. Michael Bloomberg has been involved in smart cities development programme in different parts of the world enabling selection of right and capable cities for their transformation as smart cities.

BP will soon begin work in this regard.

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