The number of projects completed increased manifold showing progress in one year what had not been achieved in the two years previous to it.
The worth of projects grounded or completed stood at Rs 19,041 crore in January 2018. This increased by 319 per cent to Rs 79,780 crore in February 2019.
Ahead of the parliamentary elections, the Modi government’s ambitious flagship programme to “smarten” up 100 cities is finally showing some tangible results. Overseen by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and meticulously monitored through a scientifically devised system by the housing and urban affairs ministry, the Smart City Mission has achieved in one year what it had not over the previous two years put together.
As per official data of the ministry of housing and urban affairs accessed by ET, between January 2016 (when the first batch of 20 smart cities were chosen through a competitive process) and January 2018, projects worth Rs 33,970 crore were tendered. This grew by 270% in a year to Rs 1,26,000 crore by February 2019. Even the number of projects completed increased manifold showing progress in one year what had not been achieved in the two years previous to it. The worth of projects grounded or completed stood at Rs 19,041 crore in January 2018. This increased by 319% to Rs 79,780 crore in February 2019.
The mission was launched in June 2015 and six months later, in January 2016, the first batch of 20 cities were chosen. The mission took time to take off as the cities formed special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and appointed consultants to handhold them through the implementation process. However, some cities showed more progress than the others. Seeing the better performers, the ministry put together an implementation and monitoring process to improve the performance of others.
The entire country was divided in two zones under two directors in the Smart City Mission. All the 100 smart cities were organised into clusters of 20 in five zones –– east, west, north, south and central. A mission was then identified. It was internally called “Mission One Lakh Crore” to be achieved by December 31, 2018. Mission director Kunal Kumar told ET, “We appointed city support coordinators, from within members of our team. Each member from our Mission Management Unit at Delhi and the Technical Assistance team was mapped to some cities and they continuously engaged with their representatives. They were tasked with the responsibility of identifying projects that were stuck and the overall achievement of the.” Kumar explained that rather than asking the cities what had they done, the ministry asked them where they were getting stuck and helped them troubleshoot..
The ministry then introduced the concept of “Implementathons” with the tag line “Getting projects from paper to ground”. Between June and December 2018, all the five zones held these meetings where the cities identified projects that could not take off and brainstormed with cities where similar projects had been implemented. At the end of two days, Implementathons yielded a list of projects that needed troubleshooting and the ministry followed it up with fortnightly videoconferencings.