Bhubaneswar, Feb. 4: Residents of Rourkela will have to wait for long before their city, which has ranked 46th in the merit list, is considered for the smart city tag.
Rourkela may not figure in the second list, which is expected to be announced next year, as the Union government has made it clear that priority would be given to the states that were left out in the first round.
Rourkela had scored 51.53 per cent when the cut-off percentage was 55.47 for the selection of first 20 smart cities from among 97 potential cities.
"Rourkela stood a very good chance of getting into the second round list of best 40 cities. But the government has revised the guidelines to consider the states that were left out in the first list," said a senior official of the state urban development department.
In the first list, 12 states have benefited.
Cities that will be given priority in the second list for smart cities are: Warangal (Telangana), Chandigarh (Chandigarh), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), New Town (Bengal), Panaji (Goa), Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh), Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh), Faridabad (Haryana), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Bhagalpur (Bihar), Shillong (Meghalay), Namchi (Sikkim), Port Blair (Andaman islands), Diu (Daman and Diu), Oulgaret (Puduchery), Silvassa (Dadar and Nagar Haveli), Imphal (Manipur), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura), Kohima (Nagaland), Aizawl (Mizoram), Kavaretti (Lakshadeep) and Dehradun (Uttarakhand).
In the process, 18 cities belonging to the left out states and Union territories, which scored below Rourkela, will be upgraded first irrespective of their scores.
Official sources said Rourkela would be considered during the third round of selection process.
It will compete with 54 cities to get the smart city tag. As the city ranks 20th in the list of 54 cities, it stands a better chance that time, said another official.
The state government has thus decided to upgrade the urban infrastructure of Roukela to enable it to succeed in the next round competition.
Sources said the government would have to take a re-look at the smart city proposal submitted by Rourkela. "The city's development plan needs to be improved. Besides, various project financing proposals will have to be reshaped with inclusion of various sources of funding, including market borrowing and assistance of Rourkela Steel Plant.
Residents of Rourkela feel let down as the city failed to come in the first list of smart city. S.K. Biswal, a management teacher, said: "All the stake holders - municipality, political parties and citizen's forums - must come together and chalk out a plan of action at the earliest."
Commissioner of Rourkela Municipality Durga Prasad Mohapatra said: "If necessary, we will change the consultant or bring in a domain expert to enhance our chances in this regard."
A blame game has started among political parties regarding non-inclusion of Rourkela in the first list. Former Congress MLA from Rourkela Prabhat Mohapatra said: "This was a complete failure on the part of local MLA Dilip Ray and MP and Union minister Jual Oram."
Ray and Oram could not be contacted.
On the other hand, president of local BJD unit Ananda Mohanty blamed the BJP leaders. Panposh district BJP president Jagabandhu Behera squarely blamed the state government for the "failure". He said: "The government did not show any interest for Rourkela."
Additional reporting by Rajesh Mohanty in Rourkela
