The Narendra Modi government’s flagship Smart City mission is running at a very slow pace with only 5.2 percent of the total identified projects being completed in the last two years, a newspaper report has said. Under the Smart City Mission, 90 cities have so far been identified through three rounds of competition for implementing various projects. A total investment of Rs 1.91 lakh crore has been proposed for the smart cities projects for these 90 cities.
Reports say that the identified projects have been completed with just 1.4 percent of the total envisaged investment. As per the mission statement and guidelines, the duration of the mission is five years, from 2015-16 to 2019-20 and each city will get Rs 500 crore as central assistance for implementing various projects. About 72 percent of the identified projects are still at the stage of preparation of detailed project report. However, according to an official Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry statement, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has recently informed a Parliamentary consultative committee that projects worth Rs 1,35,459 crore are in various stages of implementation. 147 projects worth Rs 1,872 crore have been completed, it added.
Puri said the implementation of the mission is done by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to be set up at city-level in the form of a limited company and are promoted by the State/UT and the Urban Local Body (ULB) jointly both having 50:50 equity shareholding. So far 77 smart cities have established their SPVs, he informed. Puri said the tendering process has started for 283 projects with a cost of Rs 16,549 crore and detailed project reports are being prepared for 2,029 projects worth Rs 1,02,366 crore
