45 cities have participate in the third round of smart cities challenge, 40 will be selected to be developed as smart cities by the centre. The names of 40 cities expected to be announced by June end, will take the total smart cities count to 100.
Central government launched its top ‘100 Smart City’ mission on June 2015, and announced the first list of 20 cities in January 2016. 23 cities rejected in the first round to upgrade their proposals, of which 13 cities were shortlisted in May 2016. The government in the second round announced the names of 27 more cities to be made smart in September last year. Centre bringing the number of total selected cities to 60.
Government has allocated Rs 48,000 crore for the development of these cities. Each selected city will be given Rs 500 crore over a period of five years, smart city plans worth Rs 1.33 lakh crore for the 60 cities.
The ministry of urban development is also preparing a report card on its Smart City mission as the scheme is set to complete two years of its launch this June. It is collecting data under various heads, like the number of projects completed and those being implemented.