Smart cities mission: an investment of INR 2.04 lakh crore planned has been saved
Analysis
Smart cities mission: an investment of INR 2.04 lakh crore planned
The World Bank defines a smart city as a technology-intensive city that has sensors installed everywhere and offers highly efficient public services using information gathered in real time by thousands of interconnected devices.
Overall strategy
- The smart city proposal of each shortlisted city includes either one or a combination of the area-based development and pan-city initiatives featuring smart solution(s). A key feature in the smart city plan is to try to ensure that there is a sense of inclusiveness among citizens, irrespective of age, gender, and economic status. The Smart Cities Mission mandated that the proposal has at least one citywide smart solution benefiting all citizens.
- As part of the Smart Cities Mission, an investment of INR 2.04 lakh crore is planned for various projects. Planned sources of funds include central and state governments (45%), convergence of various government schemes (21%), public-private partnerships (21%), debts or loans (5%), cities’ own funds (1%) and funds from other sources (8%).
In the future, the key challenge is expected to be (i) ensuring the sustainability of interventions at the city level and (ii) extending benefits to other cities in the country not covered under the current programme.
