UNSMARTING SMART CITIES

tion of the mission has been extended to July 2024.

India's

Smart City Mission is entering its 9th year now, but what is its progress, challenges, and how long will it take to create 100 smart cities in India?

By Nibedita Mohanta

It is estimated that by 2030 India will be home to 60 cities with a population of more than 1 million and 6 megacities with a population of more than 10 million. This will undoubtedly put a heavy burden on infrastructure and civic amenities.

The teeming population and ongoing trend of urban migration will put tremendous pressure on cities to provide resources such as water, infrastructure, transport, energy, healthcare. This means there is a need to rapidly make our urban clusters more livable, sustainable and resilient. However, the picture from the ground tells a different tale altogether.

The megacities of Delhi and Mumbai are regarded as the economic engines of India, and yet every year, heavy rainfall lasting a couple of hours or days causes havoc there.

Many areas experience power failure, and loss of internet connectivity for days. There is intense water logging in areas which shows the inability of infra to withstand heavy downpour and similar stresses.

If anything, this lays threadbare, the Smart City Mission’s eight years of progress, and our readiness in terms of climate resilient urban areas. This serves as an indictment of our core priorities and the progress made so far.

Smart Cities Report Card

According to the latest updates on Smart City Mission, 66 out of the selected 100 cities, have not yet met their physical targets even after eight years. Due to this, the deadline for the comple-

However, as per the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs ( MoHUA), more than two-thirds of the total 7,804 projects under the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) have been completed as of January 2023. There’s a dissonance between the two data points that needs closer scrutiny.

“We received requests from cities and Members of Parliament to give more time to complete the sanctioned projects,” says an official from MoHUA.

According to the ministry’s official report, the top five cities in terms of performance and completion of projects include Kakinada from Andhra Pradesh, Davanagere and Belagavi from Karnataka, New Town, Kolkata from West Bengal and Lucknow from Uttar Pradesh.

And the bottom five cities include Amaravati in Andhra

According to the report’s 18th Report of Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs (2022-23):

The last round of selection under Smart City Mission was made in January 2018 and hence the stipulated period of 05 years has completed. As regards financial allocation made by the Ministry, out of overall financial support of Rs.48, 000 crore to the Mission, Rs.36, 561 crore has been released and Rs. 33,012 crore (90% of total released) have been utilized by the Smart Cities.

Furthermore, the report says that for the further 100 Smart Cities projects worth Rs.2,05,018, so far 7821 projects worth Rs.1,81,349 crore have been taken up. And 5343 projects worth Rs.1, 00,450 crore have reportedly been completed.

That said, the city-wise physical progress of projects taken up under the Smart City Mission shows that there is a stark difference in the performance of various Cities.

On one hand, 32 Smart Cities have completed more than the number of Projects planned for implementation under SCM, in some cases even four times more than the actual target. While on the other hand, the remaining 68 Smart Cities are yet to meet the project completion targets, wherein the performance of some cities is quite dismal.

Therefore, the total number of completed Projects gives a misleading picture because

Performance and Completion of Projects in Indian Cities

it also takes into account the excess projects accomplished by 32 performing Smart Cities. The Committee is of the opinion that if the number of ‘excess projects’ is removed from the total completed projects then the actual number of projects completed under 36 the Mission would be far less than projected.

The fact remains that, 68 Smart Cities have not achieved their physical targets under the Mission by the original due January 2023, leading to an extension till June.

Identifying the Root Cause?

As per the same report, ULBs (Urban Local Bodies) lack core competence, trained manpower and finances for completion of urban infrastructure projects.

However, the ULBs did ‘reasonably well’ in implementing targeted schemes such as AMRUT & SBM. This underscores the inability of these local bodies to deliver end-to-end on compre- hensive projects such as Smart Cities Mission. Another Issue is the prevailing confusion, which often leads to projects being dropped.

In light of this, the committee issued a few recommendations; amending the relevant provisions governing Smart City Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to ensure the following:

 A fixed tenure of 3 years to CEOs of Smart city SPV

 No additional charge is given to CEOs of smart city SPVs

 Job of CEO of smart city SPV is full time

Reasons for Delay

The Committee says that multiple challenges on-ground, including COVID-19 pandemic, multi-sectoral projects, local challenges related to land, labor etc., has led to slowdown in progress.

While examining the Smart City Mission, in 2021 the Committee came across some