New Delhi: The Centre has included nine more cities from six states and Union territories to its smart city project after rejecting the nomination of several cities which failed to meet the benchmarks set by the government. However NCR Cities like Ghaziabad and Meerut have failed to make the cut.

While four cities nominated by UP could not get selected, one each from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra could not make it to the list of total 99 cities.

Some states loss meant gains for others. Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim got an additional city each in comparison to what they were initially allotted based on their urban population. UP got the maximum share with three- Bareilly, Saharanpur and Moradabad- out of the nine new cities.

The other six cities were Erode in Tamil Nadu, Biharsharif in Bihar, Silvasa in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Diu in Daman and Diu, Kavarati in Lakshadweep and Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh.

Delhi's neighbours Ghaziabad and Meerut, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's constituency Rae Bareli and Rampur, which was reportedly pushed hard by SP strongman Azam Khan could not find place in the list. "It was made clear from day one that there will be no compromise in the standards set for competition," said an official of urban affairs ministry.