The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Centre spending of about 1 lakh crore on urban development under two new urban missions — Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation of 500 cities (AMRUT) with outlays of Rs 48,000 crore and Rs 50,000 crore respectively.

Each smart city, selected through a ‘City Challenge Competition’, would get Central assistance of Rs 100 crore per year for five years. Each state will shortlist a certain number of smart city aspirants as per the norms to be indicated and they will prepare smart city proposals for further evaluation for extending central support, a statement from the Ministry of Urban Development said.

Smart City Action Plans will be implemented by Special Purpose Vehicles to be created for each city. State governments will ensure a steady stream of resources to SPVs.

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

It will be implemented through ‘area based’ approach consisting of retrofitting, redevelopment, pan-city initiatives and development of new cities. Under retrofitting, deficiencies in an identified area will be addressed through necessary interventions, the statement added. Pan-city components could be interventions like Intelligent Transport Solutions that benefits all residents by reducing commuting time.

The focus will be on core infrastructure services such as adequate and clean water supply, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transportation, affordable housing for poor, power supply, robust IT connectivity, governance, especially e-governance and citizen participation, safety and security of citizens, Health and education and sustainable urban environment.

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