Putting the vision of “100 Smart Cities” in to execution, the government has identified two places along with the DMIC (Delhi – Mumbai Industrial Corridor) to build first two smart cities. The two identified places are Dholera in Gujarat and Shendra-Bidkin in Maharashtra. According to the media sources the master plans for the two proposed smat cities has been prepared and the tenders will soon be floated.
Under the vision of “100 Smart Cities”, the government decided to develop smart cities around DMIC and 4 other industrial corridors including Bengaluru-Mumbai Economic Corridor, Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Development Corridor, Chennai-Bengaluru and Chennai-Vizag Corridor. According to DIPP (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) additional secretary Shatrughna Singh, DMIC will have about 22 places to be developed as smart cities.
The government has also planned the smart cities on all five proposed corridors in order to boost industrial development and manufacturing while catering to the demands for better living of workers there.
According to Shatrughna Singh, 7 cities out of total 22 will be developed in the first phase of Master Plan including the two in Dholera and Shendra-Bidkin. DMIC development corporation will be the responsible body for floating the tenders for these two cities.
To ease the planning, execution and channelizing the institutional funding for the smart cities, a new body National Industrial Corridor Authority (NICA) will also be created withing this fiscal. Since DMIC is in the advanced stage of the smart cities process, all the remaining corridors will come under its purview except DMIC. The government also plans to setup special purpose vehicle (SPV s) to undertake infrastructure development within the cities.
The task of developing transport infrastructure including highways, city roads for connecting the cities with the outside regions would be taken up by the Central and State Government.