BHUBANESWAR:The State Government on Thursday decided to nominate five cities for inclusion in the sought-after list of 100 smart cities from across the country.
While Capital City Bhubaneswar has emerged top scorer with 70 per cent as per the city challenge guideline prepared by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Rourkela came second with a score of 61.8 per cent. Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur scored 60 per cent each.
Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC), Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the newly formed Rourkela and Sambalpur Municipal Corporations made their presentations at a high-level Steering Committee meeting which was attended by Chief Secretary GC Pati.
“We are going to send names of five cities to the MoUD for consideration,” said Urban Development Special Secretary Sisir Kumar Rath.
Of the 100 cities to be selected in stage one, Top 20 will be developed in the first phase in 2015 and remaining cities will be provided with additional help and resources to prepare them for selection in Phase-II. In the second and third phases, 40 cities will be selected in 2016 and 2017 each.
As per a recent notification from the Centre, only the Top 20 contenders will be taken up this year for funding for the first two years and given Rs 100 crore each.