Smart cities mission set to miss its deadline

With 20 of the 100 cities chosen under the Smart Cities Mission tendering out only 10% of the projects, the ambitious initiative of the Union government to enhance the infrastructure and quality of life in the country’s urban areas seems to be far from achieving its goals.

The delay in identifying projects, shortage of urban planners, poor coordination between different projects and departments, and the inability to mobilise enough resources are the major hurdles hindering the progress of the Mission.

Read: Ambitious Smart Cities Mission disconnected from ground realities

For instance, for some urban local bodies which were struggling to provide basic needs like water, electricity, healthcare and sanitation, this programme came as a burden on the finances and the system. At the same time, many of these projects didn’t address their immediate needs.

Many states complain that the amount of Rs 500 crore allocated by the Central government per city is small given the demand for improved infrastructure. The state government is expected to invest an equal amount of money.

While the first set of the cities identified in 2016 are required to complete the work in 2021, 2023 is the deadline for cities selected in the last round. This is unlikely to be met at the current pace of implementation, even accounting for the delay due to Covid-19. Only eight of the 20 cities chosen in the first phase are showing considerable progress.

The pandemic has only worsened the situation, as cities are finding no takers for projects under the private-public partnership model.

However, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri is confident of completing most of the projects on time.

Of the 5,151 proposed projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore, 4,700 projects worth Rs 1.66 lakh crore have been tendered out. Only 1,638 projects worth Rs 27,000 crore have been completed so far.

Despite the challenges, some cities like Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Tirupur have performed well. As a final push, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is tagging top performing cities with those lagging as sister cities. For instance, top ranking Ahmedabad has been paired with Chandigarh (81 rank); Nagpur (2 rank) will help Port Blair (96 rank). The well-performing cities are expected to help their sister cities mobilise funds smoothly and execute their projects faster, officials say.