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67% of total ‘Smart Cities Mission’ projects complete, govt tells Parliament. Karnataka tops list

Among cities, Indore has the most completed Smart Cities Mission projects. Central government allocated Rs 16,000 crore to SCM in Budget 2023.

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New Delhi: More than two-thirds of the total 7,804 projects under the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) have been completed thus far, according to a response furnished by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in the Lok Sabha last week.

Launched in 2015, the SCM aims to promote cities that have core infrastructure in place, and ensure that they have a clean and sustainable environment through the application of ‘smart’ solutions to give a decent quality of life to citizens.

According to the ministry, work orders had been issued for 7,804 Smart Cities Mission projects valued at Rs 1,81,322 crore till 27 January 2023. Of these, 67.22 per cent or 5,246 projects valued at Rs 98,796 crore are complete and 32.77 per cent, or 2,558 projects valued at Rs 82,526, are expected to be complete by June this year.

“At the national level, implementation of SCM is being monitored by an apex committee headed by secretary, MoHUA Mission Secretariat of SCM. The Mission Secretariat regularly reviews the status of projects with respective Smart Cities through meetings, workshops, seminars, and the Geo-spatial Management Information System (GMIS), etc. The period of implementation of SCM has been extended upto June 2023 and all Smart Cities are expected to complete their projects within the stipulated time,” MoHUA informed Parliament. 

Implementation of the mission is ensured through Smart City Advisory Forums (SCAFs) at the city/district level and High Powered Steering Committees (HPSC) at the state level.

The SCAFs — comprising the district collector, MP, MLA, mayor, technical experts, etc. — have been constituted in each smart city to advise and enable collaboration among various local stakeholders. On the other hand, the HPSC — chaired by the state’s chief secretary — is tasked with guiding mission implementation.


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Smart Cities Mission: Most completed projects in Indore

With about 768 projects, Karnataka topped the list of states with the most completed projects, followed by Madhya Pradesh (577), Uttar Pradesh (553), and Tamil Nadu (531).

Raipur (235) in Chhattisgarh, Indore (220) in Madhya Pradesh, Tumakuru (199) in Karnataka, and Varanasi (104) in Uttar Pradesh were identified as the cities with the highest number of completed projects in their states.

Indore had the highest number of completed projects among all cities, while Shillong had the lowest — just one. The latter was also the only completed project in Meghalaya as a whole, making it the lowest-ranking state.

Illustration: Ramandeep Kaur | ThePrint
Illustration: Ramandeep Kaur | ThePrint

Launched on 25 June 2015, the Smart Cities Mission envisions the development of 7,804 projects at an estimated cost of Rs 181,322 crore. For the initiative, the central government identified 100 Smart Cities through “four rounds of competition” between January 2016 and June 2018.

According to SCM guidelines, the Union government is expected to provide financial support to the tune of Rs 48,000 crore to the 100 smart cities over a period of five years (2017-22) — almost Rs 100 crore per city per year on average. In addition, the state government/urban local body (ULB) contributes an equal amount on a matching basis, and part of the project cost is mobilised from the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), municipal bonds, and other central government schemes. 

Till now, more than 735 SCAF meetings have been convened by the and Rs 32,095 crore or 88 per cent of total funds (Rs 36,447 crore) released by the central government for the Smart Cities Mission — not including ULBs’ funds — has been utilised.

Compared to Rs 14,100 crore in FY 2022-23, the budgetary allocation for the Smart Cities Mission was hiked in the Union Budget for FY 2023-24 to Rs 16,000 crore

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)


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