Officials said on Sunday that Agra, Varanasi, Chennai, Pune, and Ahmedabad are among the 22 cities that will complete all projects under the government’s ambitious Smart Cities Mission by next month, providing their citizens with a better quality of life and a clean and sustainable environment.
The ongoing projects in the remaining 78 cities chosen for the mission will be completed in the next three to four months, according to a senior official from the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.
On June 25, 2015, the Narendra Modi government launched its flagship Smart Cities Mission, and 100 cities were chosen for redevelopment through four rounds of competition from January 2016 to June 2018.
The mission’s goal, according to the ministry, is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and provide its citizens with a decent quality of life as well as a clean and sustainable environment, in addition to adopting “smart solutions” to various issues.
Bhopal, Indore, Agra, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Erode, Ranchi, Salem, Surat, Udaipur, Visakhapatnam, Ahmedabad, Kakinada, Pune, Vellore, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Madurai, Amaravati, Tiruchirappalli, and Thanjavur are among the 22 smart cities where all projects will be completed by March.
“We will complete 22 smart cities by March as projects in these cities are in the final stages. In the next three-four months, we will be completing the project works of the remaining cities,” the official said.
A special-purpose vehicle is in charge of implementing the Smart Cities Mission at the city level. These SPVs design, build, operate, monitor, and evaluate Smart City projects.
On February 6, Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore informed the Rajya Sabha that as of January 27, this year, 5,246 projects worth Rs 98,796 crore had been completed out of 7,804 projects worth Rs 1,81,322 crore for which work orders had been issued in the 100 smart cities.
The central government has allocated Rs 36,447 crore for the mission, of which Rs 32,095 crore (88%) has been spent.
According to the mission guidelines, the central government will provide Rs 48,000 crore in financial support over five years, at a rate of Rs 100 crore per city per year. The state government or an urban local body will contribute an equal amount on a matching basis.
According to the ministry, there is currently no proposal under consideration by the government for adding more cities to the Smart Cities Mission.