Investment Projects Focusing on Revamping identified area under smart city plans

Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Puri, has informed that a total investment of Rs.1,91,155 crore has been proposed by the 90 cities under their smart city plans.  Projects focusing on revamping an identified area (Area Based Projects) are estimated to cost Rs.1,52,500 crore.  Smart initiatives across the city (Pan City Initiatives) account for the remaining Rs. 36,655 crore of investments.  Besides ABD and Pan city projects an amount of Rs. 1,998.49 crores have been kept aside for O&M cost of the Mission and other contingencies. “The implementation of the is done by a Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV) to be set up at the city level in the form of a limited company under the Companies Act, 2013 and are promoted by the State/UT and the Urban Local Body(ULB) jointly both having 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.

While 147 projects worth Rs. 1,872 crore have been completed and 396 projects with a cost of Rs. 14,672 cores are currently under implementation. Further tendering has started for 283 projects with a cost of Rs.16,549 and detailed project reports are being prepared for 2,029 projects worth Rs.1,02,366 crores, he said while addressing the members present.

He also 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.  A two-stage selection process has been followed.  In the first stage, a total number of 100 smart cities has been distributed amongst the States and UTs on the basis of equitable criteria.  The State/UT subsequently have shortlisted and potential smart cities on the basis of preconditions and scoring criteria.  In the second stage of the competition, each of the potential 100 smart cities had prepared their Smart City Proposal(SCP) which contained the model is chosen (retrofitting or redevelopment or greenfield development or a mix thereof) and additionally include a Pan-city dimension with smart solutions.