Erode has become the 11th city of Tamil Nadu while Uttar Pradesh’s Bareily, Moradabad and Saharanpur have also found place in the list of 10 new cities that would be developed under the Centre’s ambitious Smart City Mission (SCM). The final list for SCM was announced on Friday. With the inclusion of three cities in the overall tally of 99, ten cities from UP are covered under the SCM scheme.
The SCM has so far received investments from the private sector worth Rs 27,000 crore and over 42 companies from 14 countries are ready to invest in the country. As per list of smart cities, Maharashtra has eight cities, followed by Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh having seven cities each. Gujarat has six cities in the list. Uttar Pradesh that had been given 13 smart city slots, of which it won 10. Ghaziabad, Meerut and Rampur are the three cities that missed out. Ghaziabad applied for the smart cities challenge for the fourth time.
The number of cities picked under the project now stands at 99. Under the scheme, each city will get Rs 500 crore from the Centre for implementing various projects.
Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday announced Silvassa from Dadar & Nagar Haveli as winner after the fourth round of National Smart Cities Challenge competition. He also released the list of nine new cities chosen in the fourth round including Bareilly, Moradabad and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Erode in Tamil Nadu, Bihar Sharif in Bihar, Silvasa in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Diu in Daman and Diu, Kavarati in Lakshdweep and Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh. Shillong will be the 100th city provided it submits its proposal to the Centre in next three months.
As per the Ministry, the Centre has allocated Rs 12,824 crore to be invested in 409 projects to make these cities ‘Smart Cities’. “The nine cities selected have proposed an investment of Rs 12,824 crore of which Rs 10,639 crore would be in Area Based Development (ABD) and Rs 2,185 crores in Pan City initiatives which would be impacting 35.3 lakh persons living in these areas, he added.
“Smart roads, rejuvenation of water bodies, cycle tracks, walking paths, smart classrooms, skill development centres, upgradation of health facilities and pan city projects which include integrated command control centre and information and communication technology (ICT) based municipal services”.
These 9 cities have approximately 409 projects,” Puri added.
The funding sources for these projects are proposed to be with SCM - with contribution from State and Centre 61.25 per cent, convergence 24.19 per cent, Public Private Partnership (PPP) 12.90 per cent, own sources 1.57 per cent, and other sources 0.09 per cent. Puri said Kolkata’s New Town, which was selected for the mission in May 2016, was yet to form a special purpose vehicle to start implementing the projects. The West Bengal Government, however, has already announced that it would not participate in the Centre’s Smart Cities Mission.
Interestingly, as per RTI’s reply, the Ministry has stated that total Rs 9,900 crore has been given to the States under SCM. Of these, only Rs 2500 crore (approximately) will be spent by States.
Puri said the SCM is setting a new benchmark in terms of project implementation. ‘Smart City Centres’, based on advanced technologies, have become operational in four cities - Pune, Surat, Vadodara and Kakinada and work is in progress in 18 more cities.
As on 17 January 2018, there are 2,948 projects worth Rs 1,38,730 crore in various stages of implementation. 189 projects worth Rs 2,237 crore have been completed, and implementation is underway for 495 projects with a cost of Rs 18,616 crore; furthers tenders have been floated for 277 projects with a cost of Rs 15,885 crore; while 1,987 projects worth Rs 1,01,992 crore are at detailed projects report stage.