Decision to make cities smart will be taken by people, not govts: PM

“People-centric schemes are the need of the hour. The decision to make cities smart will be taken not by Governments but by the people of the city, the local administration,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the launch of the 100 smart cities mission here on Thursday.

He also launched ‘Housing for All by 2022’ and ‘Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation’ (AMRUT) schemes.

“As the world looks to India, we have to work towards reaching the world standard. We can’t feel disheartened that the world has progressed and we missed the bus,” Modi said.

The Centre has committed itself to spend about ₹4 lakh crore on the three missions over the next five-six years.

Under housing for all, the Government proposes to build 2 crore houses for urban poor including Economically Weaker Sections and Low Income Groups in urban areas by 2022.

AMRUT, which covers 500 cities, will focus on basic infrastructure like tap water and sewer connections to every urban household, solid waste management, provision of roads and public transport.

Each selected smart city will be provided Central assistance of ₹100 crore annually. Under AMRUT, allocation of funds will be according to the urban population and number of cities/towns in each State/UT. Under housing for all, it will be based on the number of urban poor and slum dwellers.

Modi said that urbanisation should be viewed as an opportunity, and urban centres should be viewed as growth engines. He said if this had been done 25-30 years ago, it would have led to good results today.

Each State will shortlist a certain number of smart city aspirants and they will prepare proposals for further evaluation for extending Central support, a statement from the Ministry of Urban Development said. This will be followed by a city challenge.

“The cities which are able to competitively meet the required parameters would be developed as smart cities. This competitive mechanism would end the top-down approach, and lead to people-centric urban development,” Modi said.

The project intends to promote adoption of smart solutions to enhance the quality of urban life and provide a clean and sustainable environment.

The country will now look to public private partnership model and innovative ways of financing to make these schemes successful, he added.

However, industry players and analysts are still adopting a wait and watch policy. Arindam Guha, Senior Director, Deloitte in India, “In addition to the financing constraints, technical capacity is another constraint — most urban local bodies in tier-II cities face severe shortage of engineers, urban planners, financial management and procurement professionals. This leads to inadequate project planning and delayed implementation. It remains to be seen how these schemes propose to overcome this.”

Pointing to the barriers for public-private partnership, David Walker, MD, SARE Homes, said, “The Government should urgently address land acquisition and approval issues, create a single-window clearance system and curb the plethora of taxes on real estate development so that tight deadlines can be adhered to. If these barriers are eliminated, public and private developers could join hands for these missions.”

Rajeev Talwar, Whole-Time Director, DLF Ltd, said, “A comprehensive policy on urban rejuvenation was overdue because cities have emerged as growth engines for our economy. They provide employment opportunities to migrating rural population.”

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