India named 20 cities on Thursday which it says will be provided with uninterrupted power and water supplies, proper sanitation and public transport in a $7.5 billion makeover to turn them into smart cities with living standards comparable to Europe.
India's cities lack basic infrastructure such as toilets and are bursting at the seams with the influx of tens of thousands of people from the countryside.
Thirteen of them are in the WHO's list of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, topped by the capital New Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to create 100 new smart cities by 2022 that will have internet connectivity, e-governance along with quality infrastructure such as waste management and efficient public transport.
The plan is also intended to boost investment and create jobs for millions of people, but it has faced criticism for being a slow starter.
The federal government has struggled to pass reform legislation making it easier to acquire land and build roads and it was not immediately clear how it would be able to provide high-quality infrastructure to these cities within five years.
On Thursday, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu named the first set of cities that will be targeted for a transformation.
These include Chennai in the south, which was ravaged by floods last year because of flawed urban planning, as well as the NDMC part of New Delhi.
"This game-changing mission marks the end of a business-as-usual approach," Naidu told a news conference. About 35 million people live in the 20 cities.
Pune, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, Visakhapatnam, Solapur, Davanagere, Indore, Coimbatore, Kakinada, Belagavi, Udaipur, Guwahati, Ludhiana and Bhopal are the other cities selected in the first batch.
"Nobody can stop an idea whose time has come and this applies to the Smart City (initiative as well)," Naidu said while announcing the list of cities that were selected through the 'Smart City Challenge Competition'.
(Agencies)
