The Government announced the 20 winners of the Smart City Challenge competition for financing during this financial year.
Each top ranking city form these left out states can upgrade their smart city proposals and submit them by April 15, this year for inclusion in the mission.
The 20 winning cities and towns have proposed a total investment of Rs.50,802 cr over five years with all the cities proposing Public-Private-Partnership as a major vehicle of resource mobilization.
10 of the 20 cities have proposed to mobilise Rs.8,521 cr under PPP model while others have also indicated this option.
A total area of 26,735 acres has been identified by these cities for making them smart through necessary interventions.
The 20 smart cities announced by Shri Venkaiah Naidu were :
| Rank | City | State |
| 1 | Bhubaneswar | Odisha |
| 2 | Pune | Maharashtra |
| 3 | Jaipur | Rajasthan |
| 4. | Surat | Gujarat |
| 5 | Kochi | Kerala |
| 6 | Ahmedabad | Gujarat |
| 7 | Jabalpur | Madhya Pradesh |
| 8 | Visakhapatnam | Andhra Pradesh |
| 9 | Solapur | Maharashtra |
| 10 | Davanagere | Karnataka |
| 11 | Indore | MP |
| 12 | New Delhi Municipal Council | Delhi |
| 13 | Combattore | Tamil Nadu |
| 14 | Kakinada | Andhra Pradesh |
| 15 | Belagavi | Karnataka |
| 16 | Udaipur | Rajasthan |
| 17 | Guwahati | Assam |
| 18 | Chennai | Tamil Nadu |
| 19 | Ludhiana | Punjab |
| 20 | Bhopal | MP |
Of these 20 cities accounting for a total population of 3.54 crore, 5 have population below 5 lakhs each, 4 in the range of 5-10 lakhs, 6 in between 10-25 lakhs, 4 between 25 and 50 lakhs and only Ahmedabad has above 50 lakhs.
Smart City Mission will lead to integrated urban planning by addressing the issue of infrastructure, land use planning, transport, urban design and architecture in a holistic manner unlike in the past.
Urban local bodies are taking a quantum jump to improve their capabilities and have resorted to SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of each city for coming out with city vision.
3 cities from Madhya Pradesh, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and one each from the remaining five made it to the winning list.
23 States and UTs who could not make to the list of winners will be given an opportunity to participate in a ‘fast track competition’.
