Smart Cities Mission – INDIA

Introduction

“Urbanisation and development coincide with each other, where there is development urbanisation find its way to uphold that place”- The Smart Cities Mission is one of that visionary mission of the Government of India which would create infrastructural development in 100 selected cities spread all over India. The concept of building Smart city is now accepted by every country and Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission (SCM) is one of the important steps taken by government to enhance the urbanisation culture in the country. The Smart Cities Mission aims to spread urbanisation by building large Housing Complexes, New Hospitals, New Schools, redesigning of roads, proper water supply, advance drainage facility, advance electric grids (with new technologies), etc. The entire urban eco-system is built considering four main pillars & that is Institutional, physical, social and economic infrastructure.

The Smart Cities Mission (SCM) is an urban retrofitting program launched by Government of India to promote cities which provide core infrastructure and enhance the quality of living. The Smart Cities Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25^th June 2015 for a span of five years and it is then further extended to the year 2023. The whole selection of cities was divided into 5 rounds whereby 1^st round consist of 20 smart cities, 2^nd round has 13 cities, 3^rd round consist of 27 cities, 4^th round has 30 of them and 5^th round with 10 smart cities. An all total of 100 cities were selected from the country with every state and union territories having at least one smart city. The objective is to enhance the urban culture through building smart cities which would eventually be the hub of infrastructure. The whole Rs. 98000 crore plan of Smart Cities Mission was implemented by the Union of Urban Development in collaboration with the state government of respective cities. In this program except for West Bengal, all the other states and union territories are participating by nominating at least one city from their state for this Smart Cities Mission. Each city would be headed by a CEO who would look to implement the Smart Cities Mission. The selection of the cities was conducted by Ministry of Urban Development by a competitive based method. There were 98 cities who have been nominated by the state governments for this project. The cities of West Bengal like New Town, Kolkata, Bidhannagar, Durgapur and Haldia were withdrawn from this Smart Cities Mission along with Mumbai and Navi Mumbai of Maharashtra.

The Smart Cities Mission is one of the visionary projects of Government of India. The scale of this project is large and implementation of the same consists of many challenges. Understanding the concept of retrofitting, redevelopment and greenfield development would require high assistance. Allocation of Investors for different development activities by the state and the MoUD under this project is one of the hard activities. The centre-state partnership is vital for the success of this mission.

Mission Overview

The Smart Cities Mission is a program which is started by Government of India and implemented by Ministry of Urban Development (along with the State Governments) for retrofitting, redevelopment and Greenfield development of 100 cities with at least one city from every State and Union Territories. The infrastructural development of these cities would provide a better quality of life for the people residing there and would increase the ease of living. The Cities are selected based on Smart City Challenge, where cities will compete in a competition to achieve the benefits. The total budget attested for this mission is Rs 98,000 crore. As per Ministry of Urban Development 98 nominated cities were taking their part in this Smart India Mission with West Bengal being the only state with no city under this Smart City Mission and Mumbai as well as Navi Mumbai of Maharashtra took out their nomination from the Smart City Mission.

Process of selecting nominees for Smart City

The Smart City Mission involves development of 100 cities all over the country with at least 1 city from every state. The cities are selected based on Smart city challenge, where cities have to take part in competition which is conducted by Ministry of Urban Development along with the state government. The competition was divided in two stages –

1. In the first stage the state & union territory would score all the cities on the basis of existing service level, institution systems & capacities, self financing and past track record. All the states and UT’s will nominate the top scorer of their state.
2. Stage two involves rigorous evaluation of the smart cities plan prepared by the 100 cities which were selected in the first stage. Based on the plans, cities are prioritised and allowed to start their work of development in different rounds.

After selection the nominated cities were divided in different rounds. With first round having 20 smart cities, 2^nd round have 13 cities, 3^rd round consist of 27 cities, 4^th round have 30 of them and 5^th round with 10 smart cities.

Feature of Smart Cities Mission

• Expanding houses by converting the unplanned lands into large complexes.
• Promoting various types of transportation services.
• Preserving and developing parks, playgrounds and recreational spaces.
• Increasing the use of online services to save cost and time.
• It helps to boost local economy and ensure security.

Challenges of Smart Cities Mission

• Financing Smart cities need high investment and hence finding a perfect investor for a project is difficult.
• Perfect Planning is very important to execute a big project.
• Dealing with multivendor environment is a challenge as it compromises the cities security.
• Delay in completing such a huge project is pretty common.
• Lack of Confidence and reluctance shown by the citizens.

Conclusion

We human beings are getting better with our survival with the evolution of technology. The development in our living helps in the development of whole country and to implement that, Smart Cities Mission was launched by Government of India. The improvement of our basic lifestyle will ensure greater efficiency in every field which in turn would boost our economy, hence this dream humongous project of Indian Government is a good step taken by the government to ensure decent quality of life, sustainable environment and application of Smart Solution. This project ensures that India is moving side by side with the advancement of technology and is not lacking with the rest of the world. ‘The Smart Cities Mission’ makes India one step forward for a smarter and self-reliable India.