The financial powers of the Coimbatore Smart City Limited (CSCL) will henceforth be ₹ 3 crore, according to a State Government Order issued on June 27, 2018. The Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department has enhanced the limit from ₹ 1.35 crore for the CSCL, which is the special purpose vehicle (company) formed for the purpose of executing projects under the Smart Cities Mission.
For the Greater Chennai Corporation, the Government had increased the limit from ₹ 10 crore to ₹ 25 crore.
For projects that are worth more than ₹ 1.35 crore, the Government’s High-Powered Project Sanctioning Committee had been according administrative sanction. The Committee will now accord the sanction for projects worth over ₹ 5 crore. Explaining the rationale for increasing the approval limit, the Government said it had been done so for “effective and expeditious implementation” of the projects.
The GO comes nearly two years after the Coimbatore Corporation registered the CSCL in July 2016 and began preparing project reports.
As of June 2018, the Corporation sources said, the CSCL had sent almost all of its proposals to the Government for approval, with the second leg of the lake development project alone to be sent. The proposals sent included the first leg of the lake development project for around ₹130 crore, smart roads proposal for around ₹ 60 crore, solar projects for about ₹ 30 crore and its share of the 24x7 drinking water supply project for ₹ 150 crore among others.
Therefore, the timing of the Government's order enhancing the limit to ₹3 crore would be of very little help to the CSCL, said the sources.
The sources also said that the quantum of enhancement was also very little as CSCL and other special purpose vehicles were looking at projects worth over ₹ 10 crore. On this front too, the Government's order was of little help to the CSCL.
Ideally, the Government should have enhanced the limit to at least ₹ 50 crore to the Corporation, or worked out a formula based on each civic body's financial strength. Or, it should have enhanced the limit more for cities that were selected in the second or third round of Smart Cities Mission, as that would help expeditious implementation, the sources added. Commenting on the increase in financial power for the CSCL, K. Kathirmathiyon, consumer activist, said that for expeditious implementation of Smart Cities project, the Government should look at appointing competent, experienced chief executive officer for the CSCL and enhancing the limit to at least ₹ 100 crore.
This would remove the red tape as the CSCL Board would have necessary powers for faster implementation of projects. Or, the Government could have fixed the powers differently for each of the cities, depending on the local bodies’ strength and weakness.