With a view to accelerate the slow moving Smart City projects in the country, Urban affairs ministry will hold a national consultation on this Friday. Officials claimed that strategy to fast track the projects will be discussed in the meeting in the presence of stakeholders from States and the ministry.
Officials said that projects under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) will also be discussed in the workshop which is basically meant for accelerating the projects. ‘AMRUT’ and ‘Smart City’ are the flagship missions of the Modi government under ministry of Urban Affairs. “Progress of Projects in cities will be deliberated upon along with strategy to fast track the implementation. Besides, cities will also share their experiences with each other,” said an official of the urban affairs ministry.
Senior officials including principal secretaries and State mission directors, CEOs of special purpose vehicle (SPV) of Smart cities will participate in the meeting to be held on December 8. “The progress of implementation of impactful projects (Smart roads, integrated smart solutions through Centralised command and Control Centres, Solar rooftop, smart water and City specific projects) will be reviewed,” added the official.
Smart City mission was launched by the Centre in June 2015 after several months of preparations, but projects at many cities are still in the stage of planning. According to sources, setting up of special purpose vehicle (SPV) to implement the works took long time. Subsequently, CEOs were appointed and tendering of the projects started. Works could be started mostly in the first batch of 20 cities which were announced in January, 2016.
Similarly, With a view to extend the urban infrastructure development support to the local bodies, (AMRUT) mission was launched on 25th June 2015 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and it is being rolled out in 500 Cities geographically spread across the Country.
Even as the Centre has approved plans worth Rs 77,640 crore in last two years under the AMRUT scheme, on ground implementation has delayed in many states due to lack of proper planning. The bedrock of the AMRUT Mission is development of core infrastructure with the objective of the achieving improvement in delivery of services and implementation of reforms.