Bhagalpur has made the smart city cut, months after chief minister Nitish Kumar rued the absence of any place from the state in the first round of the scheme.

Poll-bound Lucknow, which had failed to make it to the first 20, improved the quality of its smart city plan by 19 per cent to top the select list of 13.

New Town Calcutta improved by 11 per cent, Bhagalpur by 25 per cent, Imphal (Manipur) by 27 per cent, Ranchi (Jharkhand) by 27 per cent and Agartala (Tripura) by 25 per cent.

These six cities were among the 13 that made the cut in the second round of selections - a fast-track competition for 23 cities from as many states - for broad-basing what urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu has billed as an "urban renaissance".

"These 13 cities have substantially improved their smart city plans by addressing the deficiencies identified in the first round of competition. They have ensured better profiling of respective cities in terms of infrastructure gaps and baseline service levels, ensuring consistency between citizens' aspirations and action plans, more feasible resource mobilization plans and coordinated and integrated picture of how individual projects will contribute to area level changes," Naidu said at a news conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Under the plan, 100 cities across the country will be developed as smart cities by 2019-20 with the Union government providing financial support to the extent of Rs 48,000 crore over five years.

Each city selected in different rounds of competition will be given central assistance of Rs 200 crore in the first year and Rs 100 crore each during the subsequent three financial years. State governments and respective urban local bodies will provide an equal amount.

Lucknow, which topped the list, was followed by Warangal in Telangana and Dharamshala in Himachal.

Only 12 states and Union Territories were represented in the list of 20 mission cities announced in the first cycle of "India Smart Cities Challenge" on January 28. With the selection of these 13 cities, 25 states/UTs are now covered under the Smart City Mission.

The fast track competition was decided to be held after Nitish and other states expressed dismay at being left out.

Twenty-three cities with higher rankings from as many states and UTs, which failed to get representation in the first round, participated in the "Fast Track Competition", the result of which was announced by Naidu today.

Of these 23 cities, only 13 could qualify for the smart city projects through the fresh competition.

Seven capital cities - Patna, Shimla, Naya Raipur, Itanagar, Amaravati, Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram - which were not included in the 100 cities shortlisted for the competition will be able to participate in the next round, Naidu said.

The Netherlands-based Ecorys Nederland BV prepared the detailed project report (DPR) for developing Bhagalpur as a smart city, along with Ecorys India Pvt Ltd.

The smart city plans for Bhagalpur includes IT-enabled civic services, development of amenities including riverfront and parks, multi-model intelligent public transport, 24x7 water supply, public Wi-fi and digital education in government primary schools among others. (See Graphic)

Bhagalpur municipal commissioner Avinash Kumar Singhtold The Telegraph that total fund-allocation to Bhagalpur under the Smart City scheme over the period of five years would be Rs 1,300 crore. "Bhagalpur Municipal Corporation (BMC) would receive Rs 260 crore per year, including Rs 100 crore from the Centre as well as the state government. The remaining Rs 60 crore would come from other sources," Singh said. "BMC, spread over 27 sqkm in 51 wards and having a population of nearly 5.5 lakh, would be developed as a smart city with modern concept while improving existing infrastructure facilities," Singh said.

Celebrations started in the silk city soon after the announcement by Naidu. "We could not be selected in the first list of the smart city competition due to constraints faced by us owing to the model code of conduct during the Assembly elections held last year. Larger public-participation is an essential step in preparing the detailed project report but we were not able to do so due to the model code of conduct," said Singh.

Deliberating on the steps taken for improvising the initial DPR, Singh said: "We visited the Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad, where we received innovative tips on how to make our blueprint more attractive and effective. Thereafter, we kept updating the progress with references to our work strategies on the web portal of the Union urban development ministry till the last date of the first track competition. In the assessment of the fast track competition, we achieved 25 per cent growth in the second phase over the first phase. I believe we were able to convince the ministry that we have the capacity to utilise the funds for development."

The municipal commissioner, however, pointed out that encroachment and land-acquisition issues would be the two major challenges ahead.