||Smart Cities: Hardly smart in implementation
Over the last decade-and-a-half, cities have started receiving more policy attention from the government, with dedicated national-level programmes on urban development. The Smart Cities Mission, a flagship programme of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, completed five years, in June 2020. The Mission had sought to make 100 selected cities smart, primarily through an Area-Based Development model under which a small portion of the city would be upgraded by retrofitting or redevelopment.
Five years after its launch, the enthusiasm regarding Smart Cities seems to have waned. While smart cities and bullet trains were buzzwords in the initial years of the first term of the NDA government, over the last few years there has hardly been any mention about them by the top political leadership. Many of the projects undertaken under the Smart Cities Mission are behind schedule. According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, of the 5,151 smart city projects across the 100 cities, while around 4,700 projects have been tendered, only 1,638 projects have been completed. In terms of expenditure, of the total investment of 2,05,018 crore, only projects worth 26,700 crore have been completed. Hence, the idea of completely transforming Indias derelict cities into smart cities within five years now seems a pipe dream.
Most of these Smart Cities are now reeling under the devastation caused by COVID-19. Some cities have been using the Integrated Command and Control Centres created under the Smart Cities Mission as war rooms for monitoring real time data regarding the spread of the virus. However, tackling the larger public health and economic fallout remains a more difficult challenge.
In fact, the Smart Cities Mission has given short shrift to basic services such as public health. An analysis of the smart city projects under the Mission shows that only 69 of over 5,000 projects undertaken under the Mission were for health infrastructure. These projects are for an estimated cost of 2,112 crore, amounting to just around one per cent of the total mission cost. Hence, public health seems to be a major blind spot in Indias smart city dreams.
While one could argue that health infrastructure is not a core element of a smart city, the Smart Cities Mission was never focused merely on technology; it had the stated aim of improving the quality of life of urban residents. Further, public health is an essential local government function in Indias constitutional scheme. As per the 12th Schedule of the Constitution, introduced by the 74th Amendment, public health is one of the 18 functions that are to be devolved to the municipalities. However, public health infrastructure of cities has often been neglected over the years and new programmes such as the Smart Cities Mission have further driven local governments away from their core responsibilities.
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||Smart Cities: Hardly smart in implementation Over the last decade-and-a-half, cities have started receiving more policy attention from the government, with dedicated national-level programmes on urban development. The Smart Cities Mission, a flagship programme of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, completed five years, in June 2020. The Mission had sought to make 100 selected cities smart, primarily through an Area-Based Development model under which a small portion of the city would be upgraded by retrofitting or redevelopment. Five years after its launch, the enthusiasm regarding Smart Cities seems to have waned. While smart cities and bullet trains were buzzwords in the initial years of the first term of the NDA government, over the last few years there has hardly been any mention about them by the top political leadership. Many of the projects undertaken under the Smart Cities Mission are behind schedule. According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, of the 5,151 smart city projects across the 100 cities, while around 4,700 projects have been tendered, only 1,638 projects have been completed. In terms of expenditure, of the total investment of 2,05,018 crore, only projects worth 26,700 crore have been completed. Hence, the idea of completely transforming Indias derelict cities into smart cities within five years now seems a pipe dream. Most of these Smart Cities are now reeling under the devastation caused by COVID-19. Some cities have been using the Integrated Command and Control Centres created under the Smart Cities Mission as war rooms for monitoring real time data regarding the spread of the virus. However, tackling the larger public health and economic fallout remains a more difficult challenge. In fact, the Smart Cities Mission has given short shrift to basic services such as public health. An analysis of the smart city projects under the Mission shows that only 69 of over 5,000 projects undertaken under the Mission were for health infrastructure. These projects are for an estimated cost of 2,112 crore, amounting to just around one per cent of the total mission cost. Hence, public health seems to be a major blind spot in Indias smart city dreams. While one could argue that health infrastructure is not a core element of a smart city, the Smart Cities Mission was never focused merely on technology; it had the stated aim of improving the quality of life of urban residents. Further, public health is an essential local government function in Indias constitutional scheme. As per the 12th Schedule of the Constitution, introduced by the 74th Amendment, public health is one of the 18 functions that are to be devolved to the municipalities. However, public health infrastructure of cities has often been neglected over the years and new programmes such as the Smart Cities Mission have further driven local governments away from their core responsibilities.