Smart City Mission

Why is in news? Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri hails Smart City Mission, says over 5800 completed projects transformed urban spaces

Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs hailed the Smart City Mission, which has completed eight years.

The Minister congratulates the people and said the Prime Minister's landmark project is a flagship urban sector Mission with a total project size of 1,80,000 crore rupees.

He said over 5800 completed projects have transformed urban spaces and offered ease of living to the citizens of the country.

Smart City Mission:

Cities accommodate nearly 31% of India's current population and contribute 63% of GDP (Census 2011).

Urban areas are expected to house 40% of India's population and contribute 75% of India's GDP by 2030.

This requires comprehensive development of physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure.

All are important in improving the quality of life and attracting people and investment, setting in motion a virtuous cycle of growth and development. Development of Smart Cities is a step in that direction.

The Smart Cities Mission is an innovative and new initiative by the Government of India to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local development and harnessing technology as a means to create smart outcomes for citizens.

The 100 Smart Cities Mission in India was launched by Prime Minister on June 25, 2015.

Smart Cities Mission is an urban renewal and retrofitting programme launched to develop smart cities and make them citizen friendly and sustainable.

The Union Ministry of Urban Development is responsible for implementing the mission in collaboration with state governments; this is expected to complete between 2019 and 2023.

In the approach to the Smart Cities Mission, the objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of 'Smart' Solutions.

The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development and the idea is to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a light house to other aspiring cities.

The Smart Cities Mission is meant to set examples that can be replicated both within and outside the Smart City, catalysing the creation of similar Smart Cities in various regions and parts of the country.

The core infrastructure elements includes health & Sanitation, water supply, electricity supply, sanitation, transport, digitization, employability, sustainability, good governance, safety, etc

Smart Cities Mission Strategy:

Pan-city initiative in which at least one Smart Solution is applied city-wide

Develop areas step-by-step – three models of area-based developments

Retrofitting,

Redevelopment,

Greenfield

Financing of smart cities:

The Smart City Mission will be operated as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) and the Central Government proposes to give financial support to the Mission to the extent of Rs. 48,000 crores over five years i.e. on an average Rs. 100 crore per city per year.

An equal amount, on a matching basis, will have to be contributed by the State/Urban Local Bodies; therefore, nearly Rupees one lakh crore of Government/ULB funds will be available for Smart Cities development.

The India Smart Cities Challenge- External Website that opens in a new window is a competition designed to inspire and support municipal officials as they develop smart proposals to improve residents' lives. 100 cities will compete in the first round - with the best proposals receiving funding from the Ministry of Urban Development.

Leading economies worldwide have shown interest in India’s smart city mission and are looking forward to participate in the development of smart cities. These include Spain, the US, Germany, Japan, France, Singapore and Sweden.

Convergence with Other Government Schemes:

Comprehensive development occurs in areas by integrating the physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure.

Many of the sectoral schemes of the Government converge in this goal, although the path is different.

There is a strong complementarity between the AMRUT and Smart Cities Mission in achieving urban transformation. While AMRUT follows a project-based approach, the Smart Cities Mission follows an area-based strategy.

Similarly, great benefit can be derived by seeking convergence of other Central and State Government Programs/Schemes with the Smart Cities Mission.

At the planning stage itself, cities must seek convergence in the SCP with AMRUT, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) - External Website that opens in a new window, Digital India, Skill development, Housing for All, construction of Museums funded by the Culture Department and other programs connected to social infrastructure such as Health, Education and Culture.

Challenges:

This is the first time, a MoUD programme is using the 'Challenge' or competition method to select cities for funding and using a strategy of area-based development. This captures the spirit of 'competitive and cooperative federalism'.

Smart cities function as special purpose vehicles diverged from regular urban governance structures.

It can create islands of development rather than an inclusive all round development of the city.

State and local governments lack fine-grained data or the capability to analyse them in order to understand the evolving needs of their communities.

Although India’s Smart Cities Mission has identified more than 20 priority areas, interventions by the respective agencies are weak.

There is an inadequate emphasis on the functioning of urban local bodies.

The Area Based Development approach – development of a sewage system somewhere or a web of roads in another city – will cover just about three per cent of the urban areas associated with these smart cities.

Urban local bodies lack both technical and human capacity and professionalism.