We have tendered out 3,800 projects worth Rs 1,380 billion

You have been closely involved with the SCM since inception. In terms of targets and achievements, how would you rate it at present?
Completed projects are already contributing to improvement in quality of life in cities withsmart solutions integrating infrastructure and services. The SCM is transforming the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. It is setting a template for future development, establishing new institutions and concepts and developing institutional and professional capacity to make Indian cities cater to citizens? needs in the best possible way. Cities are developing the capacity to think strategically about urban development. The mission is creating an environment to leverage the power of communities and bottom-up planning and technology to enable the creation of connected, liveable, energy-efficient, adaptive and resilient cities. It involves three key elements: Upscaling economic opportunities and efficiencies through innovation and entrepreneurship; evidence-based policy and decision-making and governance focused around data; and capacity building of all stakeholders.

Of the 5,000 projectsthat 100 cities had proposed, we have tendered out 3,800 projects worth Rs 1,380 billion; grounded 3,000 projects worth Rs 940 billion; and competed 1,000 projects worth over Rs160 billion. This is only one aspect of what the mission has achieved. Remaining projects are expected to be tendered out by March 2020.

The mission has promoted numerousinnovative and first-in-India projects. Some examples are:

• Integrated command and control centres (ICCCs): Theseare being built in all the 100 mission cities. Twenty such centres are already operational. ICCCs function as a single source of information and point of resolution for all civic functions. They contribute tomaking cities safer and liveable through efficient management of urban services and better governance and decision-making.
• Addressing the needs of citizens through innovative solutions: Some examples aree-toilets that are self-cleaning and unmanned in Faridabad;DigiThane, an online platform to connect residents with government;mobilepublic toilets for women by converting old city buses in Pune;Oxy Reading Zone Raipur, a public library in a green zone with Wi-Fi connectivity;the Integrated Traffic and Mobility Administration Centre in Surat;smart classrooms in NDMC schools;and bio-methanation plants for sustainable waste treatment; to name a few.
• Promoting a culture of entrepreneurship across the 100 cities:SURATiiLAB provides a platform for innovation, research, start-up incubation, trade facilitation andskill development. B-Nest Foundation in Bhopal is supporting start-ups in several different sectors and over 30 start-ups from sectors including waste management, home automation, agri-tech, IOT, autonomous vehicles, healthcare, digital marketing, drone surveillance and fin-tech are operating out of the facility.

The mission intended to catalyse investments of around $30 billion into the 100 smart cities in a period of five years. Where do we stand in terms of achieving this target?
SCM was launched on June25, 2015. Thereafter, 100 cities were selected in five rounds. Although it has been four years since the launch, the effective ?Mission Age? is only two years and eight months. This is based on the fact that each city gets 60 months to complete implementation?all 100 cities get 6,000 city-months. So far, a total of 3,394 city months have been utilised from the total of 6,000.

Thus, with the Mission Age as above, the performance of SCM (as on August22, 2019) is as follows:

• Tendered: 67 per cent of total projects
  
• WO issued: 45 per cent of total projects
  
• Completed: 8 per cent of total projects
  

The cities are expected to complete their projects as per the following schedule:

As mentioned, more than 5,000 projects for over Rs 2 trillion are at various stages of implementation. The increase in the pace of implementation can be seen in the graphs below.