Constraints in Smart City
Now eight years later, an assessment has revealed that the ambitious project of Smart City has not progressed as per its declared objective. Most of the cities in India are still under immense pressure due to various reasons. The Smart Cities Mission in India was launched in June 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Under this mission, 100 cities across the country were selected and it was told that by developing modern infrastructure there, they would be made a city with a clean environment. The government had initially allocated more than $22 billion for this. But now an assessment after eight years has revealed that this ambitious scheme has not progressed as per its declared objective.
Most of the Indian cities are still under immense pressure due to the increasing number of migrant workers. If we look at the government figures, it has been claimed that about 73 percent of the scheduled projects have been completed. But a report by the Center for Financial Accountability, a non-governmental organization, said the projects were running late. Some cities have a good record among them, but the performance of other cities has been poor. This disparity can also be seen in the utilization of the funds given for these projects. It must be kept in mind here that initially it was expected to complete the Smart City Mission by 2020.
It is true that from 2020 the Corona epidemic wreaked havoc. In view of this, the target of completing the project was extended to 2023. Now in many cities, this deadline has been extended once again and it has been pushed to June 2024. Meanwhile, several cities, including Mumbai, have also decided to pull out of the project due to political differences. Of course, the purpose of the project was good. Indian cities are victims of a kind of chaos, which is in dire need of planning. Making urban infrastructure climate-resilient and sustainable, providing affordable housing, and providing facilities such as adequate power water, and effective waste management – are goals that must be achieved at the earliest. But the real question is of implementation, in which the matter has lagged somewhere.
