New Delhi, Jan. 28: Bhubaneswar has topped the list of cities that will get an image makeover under the Smart City project this year.

While Bhubaneswar aced the Smart City Challenge - that pitted 98 cities against each other - Pune landed the second position among the top 20 contenders, which will get an investment Rs 50,000 crore in the next five years as part of the NDA government's urban development programme.

Other than Pune, Solapur from Maharashtra has also made it to the list. Karnataka has got two cities - Devanagere and Belagavi.

Among the election-bound states, Chennai and Coimbatore from Tamil Nadu, Guwahati, Kochi from Kerala and Ludhiana from Punjab have made it to the list.

The list had no cities from Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

"The first list of 20 winners have made it to the top of the competition based on the implementation framework, including feasibility and cost-effectiveness...," said urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu.

"The winning cities have prepared their proposals with a strong commitment to achieving results and are based on detailed assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis specific to the city and the area chosen for development. They also have come out with clear strategies for implementation with identification of partnerships and collaborations that will produce desired results," Naidu said.

In its proposal, Bhubaneshwar has proposed to raise Rs 525 crore from convergence of schemes and Rs 2,563 crore from public-private partnerships. Bhubaneshwar is among five capital cities chosen in the first 20 cities that will be refurbished.

The winners have been chosen based on their plans with weightage being given to each aspect. For example, 30 per cent weightage was given to feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the plan, result orientation (20 per cent), citizen participation (16 per cent), smartness of proposal (10 per cent), strategic plan (10 per cent), vision and goals (5 per cent), evidence-based city profiling and key performance indicators (5 per cent) and processes followed (4 per cent).

An urban development ministry official said Bhubaneshwar was one of the cities that mooted the idea of promoting cycling, bike sharing or e-rickshaws, along with other cities such as Ludhiana, Moradabad, Vadodara, Bilaspur, Ranchi and Tiruchirapalli. The city's local bodies have also pushed for more buses and that they are available in five-minute intervals. Some of the pan-city solutions proposed in the Bhubaneswar's proposal include sensor-based traffic lights and transport systems, installation of GPS, CCTVs and on-board announcements in buses, establishing a central control room and video analysis for traffic management.

This is in addition to plans for promoting non-motorised transport, walking and cycling and multi-modal integration of bus terminals and railway stations.

The Bhubaneswar proposal was drafted after consultation with almost three lakh residents, who had voted for urban mobility as the highest priority area for the city. Water, power and waste management were the next priority areas.