The India Smart Cities Challenge is designed to inspire greater creativity from municipal officials and their partners, more involvement and inspiration from citizens, and the development of proposals that will produce concrete benefits in people’s lives.

Stage 1: Shortlisting of Cities by the States

The Stage 1 of the competition was intra-state, in which cities in the State/UT competed on the conditions precedent and scoring criteria set by Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. These conditions precedent had to be met by the potential cities to succeed in the Stage 1 and highest scoring potential smart cities were shortlisted and recommended by State/UT. On 27th August 2015, Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) announced list of nominated cities for Smart City Challenge Round II. Four cities from Rajasthan have been nominated – Kota, Jaipur, Udaipur and Ajmer.

Stage 2: The Challenge round for selection

Each of the potential 100 smart cities will prepare their proposals for participation in the ‘City Challenge’. The proposals will be prepared by the empanelled consultant shortlisted through the RFP process. The Smart City Proposal (SCP) will comprise of area based model chosen, whether retrofitting or redevelopment or greenfield development or a mix thereof, and additionally include a Pan-City dimension with smart solutions. It will also outline the consultations held with the city residents and other stakeholders, how the aspirations are matched with the vision contained in the SCP and importantly, what is the proposal for financing of the smart city plan including the revenue model to attract private participation.

It will be evaluated by a Committee involving a panel of national and international experts, organizations and institutions. The winners of the first round of Challenge will be announced by MoUD. Thereafter, while the winning cities start taking action on making their city smart, those who do not get selected will start work on improving their SCPs for consideration in the second round. Depending on the nature of the SCPs and outcomes of the first round of the Challenge, the MoUD may decide to provide handholding assistance to the potential Smart Cities to upgrade their proposals before starting the second round.