‘About 30% smart cities projects\, urban houses completed in 5 years’

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‘About 30% smart cities projects, urban houses completed in 5 years’

Cool wheels: Cycling-friendly initiatives are the need of the hour, the Urban Affairs Ministry has said.   | Photo Credit: K. Rahul Kumar

Hardeep Puri says while the targets will be achieved, there is a need to broaden scope of schemes

About 31% of projects identified under the Smart Cities Mission and 33% of urban houses sanctioned through the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) have been completed in the five years since the schemes were launched on June 25, 2015, according to the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.

The Ministry marked the fifth anniversary of the Smart Cities Mission, PMAY (U) and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) on Thursday with a webinar addressed by Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri. Mr. Puri said while the targets would be achieved, there was a need to broaden the scope of the schemes.

Through PMAY (U), 1.05 crore houses had been sanctioned against a demand of 1.12 crore homes in 4,550 urban cities. A total of 65 lakh houses had been grounded and 35 lakh delivered to the owners, the Ministry said.

81% tendered

Under the Smart Cities Mission, 5,151 projects worth ₹2 lakh crore had been identified in 100 cities. The Minister said that so far around 4,700 projects worth ₹1.66 lakh crore or 81% of the total projects had been tendered, 3,800 projects worth ₹1.25 lakh crore or 61% had been grounded and 1,638 projects worth ₹27,000 crore had been completed.

The command and control centres created under the Smart Cities Mission in 47 cities had been deployed as control rooms during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, the Minister said. He said 33 more such centres were in the process of being set up.

Tap connections

Through AMRUT, the government had provided 79 lakh household water tap connections and 45 lakh sewer connections. Projects worth ₹10,654 crore out of the approved projects of ₹77,640 crore had been completed.

Mr. Puri said the country had been better off with these missions in place before the pandemic hit.

“We are living in difficult times. In many ways, the pandemic is a wake-up call for all of us. I am sure we will all come out of this crisis stronger and resilient,” he said.

He said the city administrators should address any shortcomings they have noticed in dealing with the pandemic in future plans.

Earlier in the event, Mr. Puri launched new initiatives of the Ministry, including a city finance portal for urban local bodies and a “Cycles4Change challenge” to promote cycling in response to COVID-19.

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