In June 2015, the Centre launched the ‘100 Smart Cities Mission’. These cities were supposed to have better infrastructure, expand housing to all, and develop open spaces, among other things. Five years on, a large chunk of the earmarked money has not been spent. Several smart cities are yet to complete a single project.
Status update
Of the 5,151 projects initially proposed, only 3,629 have been actively pursued. Of these, about 25% of the projects have been completed. But in value terms, the share of work completed amounts to just 11% of the total
A long way to go
Trickle down effect
Though ₹48,000 cr. is the total approved budget between 2015 and 2019, just half of that has been allocated till now. Of the allocated funds only three-fourth has been released and just 36% of the funds released have been utilised. While over ₹ 17,000 crore has been released for different projects only ₹ 6,160 has been used.
Underutilised
Where States stand
In the following chart, each circle represents a State. The size of the circle indicates the number of smart cities in that State — the bigger the circle, the higher the number of the smart cities. Delhi, and cities in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, had a better project completion rate on an average, while cities in Punjab and Haryana were among the worst. In Gujarat, an average of 20 projects have been completed per smart city while close to 19 projects per city have reached their conclusion in Madhya Pradesh. In Punjab and Haryana only one project has been completed per city. In seven States and U.Ts. no project has been completed.
In 28 cities not a single project has been completed
In 14 cities only one project has seen its conclusion
State-wise comparison
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