 "All you need to know about 'first 20 smart cities'")
Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday released a list of the first 20 of the 98 cities shortlisted to be developed under for the Narendra Modi government’s Smart Cities Mission. These 20 cities will be the first cities to receive funds for development as smart cities. In the next two years, 40 and 38 cities will, respectively, will be included to the list.
Madhya Pradesh has got the biggest share of the first 20, with three of its cities — Jabalpur, Indore and Bhopal — figuring on the list. Maharashtra (Pune, Solapur), Rajasthan (Jaipur, Udaipur), Gujarat (Surat, Ahmedabad), Andhra Pradesh (Kakinada, Visakhapatnam), Karnataka (Davanagere and Belagavi), and Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore, Chennai) have two cities each. Odisha, Kerala, Assam, Punjab and Delhi have one representation each on the list of the first 20 (Bhubaneswar, Kochi, Guwahati, Ludhiana and NDMC area, respectively)
Business Standard takes a look at the first 20:
MADHYA PRADESH
MADHYA PRADESH
The capital of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal gets its name from the 11th century city of Bhojpal, which was founded by Parmar king Raja Bhoj. During his reign from 1005-1055 AD, Bhoj is believed to have constructed, among other things, ‘Upper Lake’ or Bada Talab, one of the largest man-made lakes, in Bhopal. Later, one Chhote Khan, a minister of Nawab Hayat Muhammad Khan Bahadur, built ‘Lower Lake’ or Chhota Talab in 1794, to beautify the city. Bhopal also has a bridge called ‘Pul Pukhta’, which separates the Lower Lake and the Upper Lake. Both lakes have witnessed growth of the city at their shores.
It is said that Raja Bhoj had established the city of Bhojpal to protect the eastern frontier of his kingdom. The present city was set up by an Afghan soldier, Dost Mohammed (1707-1740).
Bhopal boasts diversity in its culture and religions. The old city has a large Muslim population. India’s largest mosque (Tajul Masjid) and the smallest one (Masjid Dhai Seedhi) are present here. Also, there are several palaces bearing aristocratic imprints of the city’s former rulers.
Bhopal has seven Assembly constituencies. It houses Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology and Rajiv Gandhi Technical University. It also has Makhan Lal Chaturvedi University of Journalism, Pt Khushilal Sharma Government (Autonomous) Ayurveda College and Institute.
Indore
One of the ‘19-gun salute princely states’ during the British rule, Indore was the capital of Madhya Bharat (Central province) during 1950-56. It was ruled by the Maratha Holkar dynasty until being acceded to the Indian Union. This 500-year-old city, also known as the trade and finance capital of Madhya Pradesh, had direct trade links with Delhi and Deccan states during the 16th century.
The city has two parts — Juni Indore (old city) and New Indore. The new city was developed by feudal landlords (zamindars), who controlled Kampel pargana. These zamindars received the title ‘Chaudhari’ and controlled most of the land. A local zamindar Rao Nandlal Chaudhari, who had a platoon of 2000 soldiers, initiated modern settlements. It is said Nandlal constructed the fort Sansthan Bada Rawala to avoid harassment from the Marathas and Nizams, and this marked the establishment of the present-day Indore city.
However, he later accepted suzerainty of the Marathas by 1720, when the headquarters of the local pargana was transferred from Kampel to Indore. On 29 July 1732, Bajirao Peshwa-I granted Holkar State to Malhar Rao Holkar, the founder ruler of the Holkar dynasty. His daughter-in-law Ahilyabai Holkar moved the state’s capital to Maheshwar in 1767, but Indore remained an important commercial and military centre.
Modernisation started when the Railways touched the city in 1875. In 1918 noted architect and town planner, Patrick Geddes floated first master-plan of the city.
After independence, with the formation of Madhya Bharat in 1948, Indore became the summer capital of the state. On November 1, 1956, when Madhya Bharat was merged into Madhya Pradesh, the state capital was shifted to Bhopal.
This is the only city in India that has an Indian Institute of Technology and an Indian Institute of Management. The Daly College, one of the oldest co-educational institutes of the world, was founded in 1882. The Holkar Science College, officially known as Government Model Autonomous Holkar Science College, was established in 1891. India’s first medical institution, King Edward Medical School, came up in 1848. Later, the college hospital was named after Yashwantrao Holkar, the last Holkar king to rule Indore. In 1955, it was Asia's largest government hospital, with 1,200 beds.
Pithampur, near Indore, known for its auto component manufacturing, is often referred to as Detroit of Asia and houses 1,500 large, medium and small industrial units.
Pharma majors like Ipca Laboratories Cipla, Lupin, Glenmark, Unichem and auto companies like Force Motors, Volvo Eicher Commercial, Avtec, Mahindra Two-wheelers Ltd have their units in Pithampur.
Indore also houses the first special economic zone for information technology (the Crystal IT Park, across 550,000 square feets). Besides, two prominent SEZs are being developed in the city by TCS and Infosys. Also, a diamond park and jewellery park, food park, apparel park and two clusters for Namkeen (Indian snacks) and Pharmaceuticals are being set up.
Gwalior
Gwalior
Known as Scindia state in the second half of the 18th century, Gwalior figured prominently in the three Anglo Maratha wars. During 1857, the city was briefly held by mutiny forces, until they were defeated by the British. However, the Scindia family ruled Gwalior till 1947, when King Jivajirao Scindia acceded to the Indian Union. Gwalior was merged with a number of other princely states. Jivajirao Scindia was the state’s governor from May 28, 1948, till October 31, 1956, when Madhya Bharat was merged into Madhya Pradesh.
After independence, Vijayraje Scindia, widow of Jivajirao became a Lok Sabha member in 1962. Her son, Madhavrao was also elected a member of the Lok Sabha in 1971 on a Congress Party ticket and served until his death in 2001. His son, Jyotiraditya is a sitting Congress member of the Lok Sabha.
With some of the prominent government institutes like The Accountant-General (AG) of Madhya-Pradesh, Commissioner-Land Records & Settlements Madhya-Pradesh and State Excise Commissioner, Gwalior is an important city of Madhya Pradesh. It also has Defence Research & Development Establishment (DRDE), Border Security Force (BSF) Academy, National Cadet Corps (NCC) Officer's Training Academy (OTA), Indian Air Force (IAF) Station (Maharajpura Airbase), Office of The Narcotics Commissioner of India (Central Bureau of Narcotics) and Central Potato Research Institute. Gwalior also has one of the best cricket stadiums, Captain Roop Singh Stadium.
Also, Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raja Mansingh Tomar Music & Arts University and Lakshmibai National University of Physical Education and Indian Tourism Management University are situated here.
MAHARASHTRA
Better known as the education capital of Maharashtra, Pune is now a sprawling city. It was once the base of the Peshwas of the Maratha Empire. The city is also known for its grand Aga Khan Palace, built in 1892. Today, this place stands as a memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, whose ashes are preserved in its gardens.
Formerly a hub for textile and handloom industries in Maharashtra, Solapur was originally called Sonnalagi. However, the city got its present name under the rule of the British, who, it is said, found it difficult to pronounce the original name.
RAJASTHAN
Jaipur
Founded by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II in 1727, Jaipur is considered India’s first planned city. When Prince of Wales visited Jaipur in 1878, the whole city was painted pink to welcome him, hence the popular name ‘Pink City’. The capital of Rajasthan, the city hosts the state Assembly and all government departments.
Udaipur
Founded in 1559 by Maharana Udai Singh II as the final capital of the erstwhile Mewar kingdom, Udaipur lies at the southern end of the Aravalli Range. It is also known as the city of lakes. In 2006, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Udaipur one of the country’s 250 most backward districts (of the total of 640).
GUJARAT
The city’s history dates back to the 11 th century. Solanki King Karandev established a city named Karnavati on the banks of the river Sabarmati. In the 15 th century, Ahmed Shah’s grandson, Mahmud Begada fortified the city with a 10-km long wall with 12 gates, the ruins of which can still be seen in the ‘old city’ or eastern banks of the Sabarmati. A few centuries later, Ahmedabad played a remarkable role in the country’s freedom struggle, with Mahatma Gandhi setting up two ashrams in the city. These ashrams became centres of intense nationalist activities in the 20 th century.
Ahmedabad was named the capital of the new state of Gujarat after bifurcation of the Bombay state on May 1, 1960.
About 30 km from the state’s current capital Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad falls under seismic zone 3, in a scale of 2 to 5 (in order of increasing vulnerability to earthquakes).
Forbes had featured the city in the list of fastest growing cities in 2010, and as of 2014, Ahmedabad’s estimated gross domestic product was $119 billion. The city is home to some of the country’s premier institutes — the Indian Institute of Management, Mudra Institution of Communication, and the National Institute of Design, to name a few.
Dubbed the ‘Manchester of the East’, Ahmedabad’s tryst with textiles began in 1861, when Ranchhodlal Chhotalal founded the first Indian textile mill, the Ahmedabad Spinning and Weaving Company. This was followed by a series of textile mills like Calico Mills, Bagicha Mills and Arvind Mills. Housed in the city’s vicinity are some major automobile projects like the Tata Motors Nano project, and Ford India’s manufacturing plant; besides a pharmaceutical manufacturing hub. Two of the country’s biggest pharma majors, Cadila Healthcare and Torrent Pharmaceuticals, are headquartered in Ahmedabad, in addition to a few hundred contract manufacturers and SME players. Pharma special economic zones are also situated near the city.
On the banks of the river Tapi, the ‘diamond’ and ‘textile’ city of Surat in South Gujarat owes its history to the old Hindu town of Suryapur, in 1500-1520 AD. The city was later colonised by the King from Sauvira, followed by Mughals and then British rulers from 1759 till the beginning of the 20th century.
Armed with a 6-km coastal belt along the Arabian Sea, the city emerged as an important trade centre and enjoyed prosperity through sea trade in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. A hub for diamond polishing and textiles, Surat became the most important trade link between India and many countries, and was at the height of prosperity till the rise of the Bombay port in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Emerging as one of the cleanest cities in India after being hit by a plague in the 1990s, Surat has been known by several other names like ‘the silk city’, ‘the diamond city’, and ‘the green city’. Apart from the British, the Dutch and the Portuguese also established their business centres in Surat, remnants of which are preserved in modern-day Surat. In the past, the city was a glorious port with ships from 84 countries anchored to its harbour. Today, it houses the prominent Hazira port and SEZ.
The Regional Transport office of Surat puts the vehicular data, as on January 2015, at 2.42 million vehicles, growing annually at 34.84 per cent. Every year, about 45,777 new vehicles are added to Surat’s roads.
In 2008, Surat was dubbed the wealthiest city of India in terms of per-capita income — at ~4,57,671 according to a study jointly conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research’s Rajesh Shukla and Future Capital Research’s Roopa Purushothaman. Besides textile manufacturing, trade, diamond cutting and polishing industries, the city is also supported by intricate Zari works, chemical industries and the petrochemical and natural gas-based industries at Hazira, established by leading industry houses like ONGC, Reliance, Essar and Shell.
Surat accounts for 42 per cent of the world’s total rough diamond cutting and polishing, and 70 per cent of India’s total rough diamond cutting and polishing, as well as 40 per cent of the country’s total man-made fabric production.
Surat has attracted massive investments, of which a substantial portion is under implementation. According to CMIE 2002, the Surat City region has a proposed investment of about Rs 11,817 crore. In addition, projects worth Rs 2,022 crore are under implementation. Hazira port and SEZ are major focal points for growth.
ANDHRA PRADESH
An important coastal town in Andhra Pradesh, Kakinada is home to onshore facilities of oil & gas companies like Reliance Industries and ONGC. In addition to an existing anchorage port, a deep-water port, the first private port, was developed in this city in 1996. Besides a 10,000-acre multi-product SEZ and the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR), a number of gas-based thermal power projects have come up near Kakinada in recent times.
The city’s principal exports include seafood and related products, agricultural products like rice and corn, oilmeals, processed food products and chemicals. Kakinada is also known as a fertiliser city, housing two fertiliser producers — Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Godavari Fertilisers.
Inhabited mostly by fishermen’s communities in earlier times, Visakhapatnam today is the largest city in the present Andhra Pradesh. With industrial and port-based trade and economic activities, the city is a driver of growth for the state. It used to be known by the name of Vizagapatam until the 1930s and 1940s. According to archaeological records, Visakhapatnam was built around the 11th century CE, and the control over the city changed hands between the Chola Dynasty and Gajapati kingdom until it was conquered by the Vijayanagara Empire in the 15th century. Later, it went into the hands of Mughals in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, it had come under the French rule, the control was passed on to the British in 1804, and it remained under the British rule until independence. After independence, the city developed into one of the country’s chief ports and became the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command. Also, Visakhapatnam is a popular tourist destination in South India.
Apart from port-based trade and economic activity, the presence of a number of large public-sector enterprises like Vizag Steel (RINL), BHPV, Vizag Shipyard and HPCL make the city a predominantly industrial one. Formed in the year 1931, Vizagapatam Chamber of Commerce and Industry is one of the oldest chambers of commerce in India. Visakhapatnam is also experiencing growth in the information technology sector, contributing to the local economy. Some 21.16 acres in Rushikonda has also been identified and allocated for construction of a ‘Signature Tower’ to house IT companies.
KARNATAKA
The second-largest city in Karnataka, Belagavi has been a political hub since the pre-Independence days. The city hosts Karnataka’s legislative sessions outside of the state-headquarters in Bengaluru. There have been several attempts from Maharashtra to stake claim to this city, which has a large Marathi-speaking population. In 2006, Karnataka named the city its second state capital.
Once a textile hub, Davanagere is now largely known for being a centre for education. Located closer to a cotton-cultivating region, the city has a few cotton mills. Several medical and engineering colleges are located here. The state government controls this city through a deputy commissioner.
TAMIL NADU
The capital of Tamil Nadu and popularly referred to as the Detroit of India, Chennai is one of the country’s biggest industrial and commercial centres. Besides, it is a major cultural, economic and educational centre and a growing metropolitan. The first official use of the name Chennai is said to have been in a sale deed in 1639 to Francis Day of the East India Company. Later, the city was named Madras and remained that until recently, when it was decided that the city would revert to its old name.
Also called the Manchester of South India, Coimbatore was earlier known as Kongu Nadu and was ruled by the Cheras. It served as the eastern entrance to the Palakkad Gap, which was the principal trade route between the west coast and Tamil Nadu. The textile boom that started in the early 19th century due to the decline of the cotton industry in Mumbai after independence saw Coimbatore grow rapidly in subsequent years.
ODISHA
The capital of Odisha and popularly known as the temple city, Bhubaneswar was designed by the German architect Otto Konigsberger in 1946. Apart from Chandigarh and Jamshedpur, it is one of the first planned cities of India. An emerging information technology and education hub, Bhubaneswar is one of the country’s fastest-developing cities. A Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP), 2010, is in place to create a world-class city. CDP has a proposal for an investment of Rs 29,500 crore, of which Rs 15,000 crore will be public investment and the rest will come from private sources. The state government has already initiated steps to have Wi-Fi across the city.
KERALA
Kerala’s commercial hub, Kochi is a port city that has seen growth due to increased exports of spices from the region. The city also has one of the highest concentrations of luxury cars in the country, thanks to locals converting agricultural land to real estate projects and remittances from migrants in the Gulf region. A Metro transport network is in the works to decongest the city. The Kerala government has been working on a comprehensive city development plan that projects growth of the city till 2013.
ASSAM
The gateway to the Northeast, Guwahati, also the region’s commercial hub, was formerly known as Pragjyotishpur. It was the capital of Kamrupa kingdom until the 12th century. Situated on the banks of the river Brahmaputra, with hills surrounding it on three sides, the city acts as an entry for all the state capitals of the Northeastern states (barring Itanagar). Guwahati is the foremost city of the region, with its rail, road and air connectivity with the rest of India. Of late, the city has been witnessing a rapid growth in the real estate sector, as people from across the state and the region prefer moving to this city in search of jobs and livelihood. At present, a metro rail project is in the pipeline to decongest the city, as there has been a fast growth in the number of vehicles on Guwahati’s roads. The city also acts as the medical and educational hub of the Northeastern region.
PUNJAB
An important industrial town of Punjab, Ludhiana has hosiery, cycle, automotive, sewing machine and spinning mill clusters. It is 98 km Northwest of Chandigarh on the NH 1, and is dotted with a large number of small and medium enterprises. It also houses headquarters of some of the corporate houses like Vardhman Group, Nahar Industrial Enterprises, Vallabh Textiles, Garg Acrylics and Trident.
The city, which has a high number of luxury cars, also has the distinction of housing the first medical school for women in Asia (Christian Medical College and Hospital, founded by Dame Edith Mary Brown in 1894).
Ludhiana, despite being an important industrial spot, has missed several investment proposals in the past due to the high land and power costs in Punjab.
The city’s Punjab Agriculture University is considered a lifeline for Punjab’s agriculture — new crop verities developed here have helped farmers across India improve yields and income levels.
DELHI
New Delhi
Covering mainly Lutyen's Delhi, the area under New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) houses government buildings, ministerial homes, and major hotels. The area of Connaught Place, a major economic, political and social hub with British architecture and urban planning, besides prominent monuments like India Gate and Jantar mantar, fall in the NDMC area.
