Smart Cities Mission (SCM)

Objective:

• • To promote sustainable and inclusive cities, providing core infrastructure
  • ensuring a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment through application of ‘Smart’ Solutions.
  • Creating replicable models which can act as lighthouses for other aspiring cities.

Features:

• • It is a centrally sponsored scheme launched in 2015.
  • 100 cities are selected to be developed under the mission.
  • The mission works on the basis of six fundamental principles:
    • Community at the core of planning and implementation.
    • More from less i.e. generate greater outcome with less resources.
    • Corporative and competitive federalism.
    • Integration, Innovation and Sustainability – both methods and solutions
    • Technology as means, not the goal – careful selection of technology as per its relevant for city.
    • Convergence – sectorial and financial
  • It is implemented through Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) at city level. It will plan, appraise, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate the Smart City development projects.
  • State government and Urban Local Bodies are responsible for contributing equal amount for implementing projects under smart city proposal.
  • The mission mainly comprises three models:
    • Retrofitting – city improvement
    • Redevelopment – city renewal
    • Greenfield development – city extension
  • The period of implementation of SCM has been extended upto June 2024.
  • Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCC) operationalized in all smart cities are envisaged to act as the brain and nerve center of the enabling cities with a decision support system for enhancing quality of life for its citizen.
  • It does not provide and fixed template of a smart city.

Issues:

• • One of the major challenges faced by SPVs is due to lack of clear guidelines and frequent transfer of CEOs.
  • Issues in Smart City Advisory Forum:
    • Meetings not held regularly.
    • MPs not included.
  • Lack of emphasis on Pan city projects. The Committee noted that pan city projects comprise less than 50% of total projects in 76 out of 100 smart cities.
  • Lack of capacity building of ULBs especially in northeast states. PSC highlighted that despite providing 90% Mission funds from the centre, eight out of the 15 bottom-ranking cities in terms of mission progress, are from the North-east.
  • Low private participation as half of the smart cities could not take any project under the PPP model.
  • Delay in project completion as the Committee noted that 400 projects under SCM may take time to complete beyond December 2023.

Parliamentary Standing Committee recommendations:

• • For SPV:
    • Fixed tenure of CEOs
    • Representation of experts and other stakeholders
    • Utilizing existing expertise for other projects
  • PSC has recommended for regular and timely meetings of smart city advisory forum, along with participation of MPs.
  • Formulating a mechanism to protect digital infrastructure from cyber threats and maintain data privacy. It recommended building comprehensive operation and maintenance strategies to increase lifetime utility and ensure timely upgradation of assets under the mission.
  • Strengthening capacity of ULBs especially in small cities.  Central government should assist states in organizational restructuring and capacity building to improve financial mechanisms of these states.