Govt envisages Rs1,91,155-cr investment in 90 smart city projects

The government has proposed a total investment of Rs1,91,155 crore across 90 cities under their smart city plans. These include Rs1,52,500 crore investment in projects focusing on revamping an identified area (Area Based Development), minister of state for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Puri informed Parliament.

Smart initiatives across the city (Pan City Initiatives) account for the remaining Rs36,655 crore of investments.  Besides ABD and Pan city projects an amount of Rs.1,998.49 crore has been kept aside for O&M cost of the Mission and other contingencies, he said.

He said the implementation of the Smart Cities Mission is done by a special purpose vehicle(SPV) to be set up at city level in the form of a limited company under the Companies Act, 2013 and are promoted jointly by the states / union territories and urban local bodies (ULB) with 50:50 equity shareholding. After selection, each selected Smart City has to set up SPVs and start implementation of their Smart City Proposal, preparation of detailed project reports (DPRs), tenders etc. The SPV will convert the smart city proposal into projects through project management consultants (PMCs) and implementation thereafter.

So far, 77 Smart Cities (including 11 of the Round 3 cities) have established their SPVs, he further informed.

He was addressing the Parliamentary consultative committee meeting attached to the ministry of housing and urban affairs on Thursday.

Addressing the members present, Puri said that projects worth Rs1,35,459 crore spread over 2,855 projects are in various stages of implementation while 147 projects worth Rs1,872 crore have been completed and 396 projects with a cost of Rs14,672 cores are currently under implementation.

Tendering has started for 283 projects involving an expenditure of Rs16,549 crore and detailed project reports are being prepared for 2,029 projects worth Rs1,02,366 crore.

Informing the members present, the minister said, ''The selection process of Smart Cities is based on the idea of competitive and cooperative federalism and follows a challenge process to select cities in two stages.  In the first stage, total of 100 smart cities have been distributed amongst the states and UTs on the basis of equitable criteria. The states / UTs subsequently shortlisted and potential smart cities on the basis of preconditions and scoring criteria.

In the second state of the competition, each of the potential 100 smart cities had prepared their Smart City Proposal (SCP), which contained the model chosen (retrofitting or redevelopment or greenfield development or a mix thereof) and additionally include a pan-city dimension with smart solutions.

 In Stage 1, all states / UTs shortlisted 98 potential Smart Cities to participate in Stage II. Further, on the basis of requests received from states, 12 new potential Smart Cities (left out capital cities and equal scoring cities) have also been included to participate in an all-India Competition (Stage 2) of the Smart City Challenge Process. In Stage II, 90 cities (20 cities in Round1 in January 2016, 13 cities in fast track round in May 2016, 27 cities in Round 2 in September, 2016 and 30 cities in Round 3 in June 2017) have been selected so far.

The other 10 cities are expected to be selected in this financial year (2017-18), the minister further informed.

Under SCM 2,864 projects worth Rs1,35,958 crore are in various stages of implementation while 148 projects worth Rs1,872 crore have been completed and work is underway for 407 projects with a cost of Rs15,600 crore.

Further, he said, tendering has started for 237 projects with a cost of Rs13,514 crore and DPRs are being prepared for 2,025 projects worth Rs1,02,260 crore. The progress with respect to implementation of projects pertaining to Smart Solutions, Smart Roads, Smart Water, Solar Rooftops, are also underway, he added.