Smart City Mission flounders
PM Modi to review on June 25 the projects cleared under the mission
The Modi government's much acclaimed flagship Smart City Mission is floundering as only 7% of Rs 9,860 crore released to 60 cities for improving the civic amenities has been utilised so far.
An upset Prime Minister Modi has decided to review the projects cleared under the mission on June 25, prompting the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to sprint with a smart cities conclave in Bhopal on May 8 and 9 to examine the best practices adopted for presentation to him.
The cities selected under the mission have been asked to prepare a list of practices they have adopted for presentation at the Bhopal conclave.
The projects taken up under the mission to ensure better life to the city residents were regularly highlighted during the tenure of M Venkaiah Naidu in the ministry until he became India's Vice-President, but a realisation has dawned now that the mission was otherwise not in good health.
The Prime Minister deciding to review the projects himself after his office expressed concern over the slow pace of work under the mission has raised hopes that it will plug the bottlenecks to speed up the projects.
A fact-sheet submitted by the ministry to a parliamentary standing-committee shows that so far only Rs 645 crore have been spent on the mission by the states as against the central release of Rs 9,860 crore.
Each of the first 40 cities selected for the mission was
A fact-sheet submitted by the ministry to a parliamentary standing committee shows that so far only Rs 645 crore have been spent on the mission by the states as against the central release of Rs 9,860 crore.
disbursed Rs 196 crore. Even four top cities in terms of utilisation of the funds consumed just 25% to 40% of the sanctioned amount. Ahmedabad topped with maximum utilisation of Rs 80.15 core, followed by Indore Rs 70.69 crore, Surat Rs 43.21 crore and Bhopal Rs 42.86 crore. On the bottom side, Ranchi spent just Rs 35 lakh and Aurangabad Rs 85 lakh.
Among the cities that got around Rs 111 crore each from the Centre, Vadodara in Gujarat spent Rs 20.62 crore and Namchi in Sikkim Rs 6.80 crore. On the other hand, Salem, Vellore and Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu could utilise only Rs 5 lakh, Rs 6 lakh and Rs 19 lakh respectively.
In its report to Parliament in the recently-concluded budget session, the Parliamentary standing committee on urban development expressed unhappiness over the slow pace of implementation of the mission, noting that the "ground reality of work done under Smart Cities Mission is different that what was claimed by the government."
It wondered how can the targets set in the mission can be achieved when even after three years of its launch, most of the identified projects are still at the stage of preparation of detailed project reports.
The mission envisaged concerted efforts to ensure best facilities and amenities in 100 cities. So far 99 cities have been selected, with a promise that each one of them will get Rs 500 crore from the Centre for various projects. These cities have already identified projects worth Rs 2.04 lakh crore, but the parliamentary committee said most of them are only on the drawing board.