Smart city gets Rs. 1,91,155 cr investment

Injecting a major push to the smart city plans, the Central government has proposed a total investment of Rs.1,91,155 crore across 90 cities under the mission. These include Rs.1,52,500 crore investment in projects focusing on revamping an identified area (Area-Based Development), Minister of state for Housing & Urban Affairs, Hardeep Puri said. The smart initiatives across the city (Pan City Initiatives) account for the remaining Rs.36,655 crore of investments. Besides ABD and Pan city projects, Rs.1,998.49 crore has been kept aside for O&M cost of the Mission and other contingencies. He added the implementation of the Smart Cities Mission is done by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to be set up at city level in the form of a limited company under the Companies Act, 2013 and are promoted jointly by the states / union territories and urban local bodies (ULB) with 50:50 equity share holding. After selection, each selected Smart City has to set up SPVs and start implementation of their Smart City Proposal, preparation of detailed project reports (DPRs), tenders etc. The SPV will convert the smart city proposal into projects through project management consultants (PMCs) and implementation thereafter.