The Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, while presenting the Union Budget 2018-19 on Thursday said that as many as 99 cities were selected under the ambitious Smart City Mission at an outlay of Rs 2.04 lakh crore.

“Infrastructure is a growth driver for the country. In the Smart City Mission that aims at 100 cities, 99 smart cities have been selected and will be allocated Rs 2.04 lakh crore, Jaitley informed Parliament.

The Ministry has so far launched 99 smart cities in two years.  

Milind Kothari, Managing Partner, BDO India, "True to the commitment, Smart Cities programme is progressing well and with continued budgetary support, these cities will greatly benefit from a new ecosystem of infrastructure leveraged on the thrust of using technology as the backbone. Modernisation of Railway infrastructure, like Smart Cities, has been a compelling need and the new commitment by the FM would firmly take the Railway in this direction. "

The first batch of 20 cities was selected in January 2016, and the last nine cities were selected as recently as in January 2018.

As on January 17, 2018, there are 2,948 projects worth Rs 1.38 lakh crore, at various stages of implementation. About 189 projects worth Rs 2,237 crore have been completed, and the implementation is underway for 495 projects with a cost of Rs 18,616 crore.