Smart City Mission An Ambitious Project Of The Current Indian Government

Smart cities are townships that have certain Basic, smart, some modern features and are mostly self -sustainable. Some of the features of a smart city are 24 hours of electricity supply, drinkable tap water, proper solid waste management, efficient public transport, etc.

For the above, the government is working under the smart city mission in which the government of India has decided to develop 100 smart cities. These 100 cities will be developed in 4 rounds and a fast-track group of cities that are being developed on a priority basis.

The total urban population being impacted by this project is 99,630,069 and the total cost of the coming out to be Rs. 2,05,018 Cr.  Fundings are also divided under to different categories, projects of open riverfront ( Rs.7,007 Cr.),  App based projects ( Rs. 780.60 Cr.), Housing project worth Rs.17,035.95 Cr. And PPP projects worth Rs.4,207.71 Cr.

For now, the government till 1^st march 2019  has spent 2 lakh crore on 5000 projects that are going on in the 100 cities of the nation that are selected under the smart city mission. The most number of cities 13 being chosen from Uttar Pradesh.

Smart City mission gave 3 options to the selected cities

1. First retrofitting that is to furnish and improve the existing city and its infrastructure.
2. Second greenfield development in which the empty field near the city was to be developed as the new smart city.
3.  The third redevelopment, that is the existing city is to be developed from scratch to be a smart city.

The cities that are part of this mission are Lucknow, Dharmshala, Ranchi, Imphal, Lashdweep thane, New Kolkata township, Vellore and the list goes on. Around 2,342 projects worth Rs 90,929 crore have been tendered. Out of these, 1,675 projects worth Rs 51,866 crore are currently being implemented or have been completed, according to data presented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to the Lok Sabha.

The central government has not yet set any official target deadline to complete this mission but it is assumed to be before the 75^th anniversary of Indian Independence which is in the year 2022. Although 33% of total 5,151 on going to smart city projects were completed by the year 2018.