The Union Government has announced new list of 30 cities for development as smart cities taking the total cities picked up so far to 90 under Smart City Mission. Announcing the new batch of smart cities at a National Workshop on Urban Transformation, Union Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation M Venkaiah Naidu said that 45 cities contested for 40 available smart city slots but only 30 were selected to ensure feasible and workable plans that match the aspirations of the citizens as directed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while launching the mission.

The minister informed that the 30 cities announced proposed a total investment of Rs 57,393 crore under respective smart city plans. This includes Rs 46,879 crore for ensuring core infrastructure in the areas identified by citizens for area-based development and Rs 10,514 crore for technology-based solutions for improving governance, service delivery and utilisation of infrastructure. With this, the total investment approved under the smart city plans of 90 cities has gone up to Rs 1,91,155 crore.