Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri declared on Monday the selection of 18 cities to receive ₹1,496 crore under the CITIIS 2.0 challenge, aiming to encourage the reuse and recycling of waste in urban areas. As part of CITIIS 2.0, cities will execute initiatives fostering a circular economy for solid waste management over the next four years.
These cities include Agartala, Agra, Bareilly, Belgaum, Bilaspur, Guwahati, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Madurai, Muzzafarpur, New Town Kolkata, Panaji, Rajkot, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Thanjavur, Udaipur, and Ujjain.
Mr. Puri said, “The urban interventions being implemented will be replicated across the country and studied as ‘lighthouse initiatives’ in the fledgling movements of circular economy in India.”
Launched in November 2023, CITIIS 2.0 is financed by multilateral agencies through a combination of loans and grants. All 100 cities participating in the Smart Cities Mission were qualified for the challenge, and submissions were accepted until January 15.
Proposals were assessed uniformly based on four criteria: sustainable development, innovation and integration, participatory approach, and partnership relevance, and feasibility. In the interest of fostering regional fairness, the ministry specified that at least one city from each of the six zones in the country would be chosen.
Selected cities will receive funding ranging from a minimum of ₹20 crore to a maximum of ₹135 crore. The state and union governments will jointly repay the loan amount for each of the smart city projects as per the lending arrangement.
As part of CITIIS 2.0, state governments will receive a grant of ₹264 crore to establish climate observatories for cities, enabling data-driven planning and disaster management preparations. An additional ₹106 crore, provided as a grant by the European Union (EU), constitutes the third component of the scheme. This fund will be utilized for national-level technical assistance training for officials of urban local bodies throughout the country.
CITIIS 1.0, introduced in 2018 using a similar challenge mode, was implemented in 12 cities, focusing on smart city projects in sustainable mobility, public open spaces, e-governance and ICT, and social and organizational innovation in low-income settlements.
