New Delhi: Most of the state capitals of the eight North Eastern states are not connected with rail lines, air ports and dependable all weather roads till date, but all of them will become smart cities under the NDA Government’s flag ship programme.
Meghalaya Urban Affairs Minister Amapreen Lyngdoh had demanded that the New Shillong Township and both Tura and Jowai should be developed as smart cities envisioned by the new Government. In a smart city there is supposed to be round the clock electric and potable water supply with state of the art mode of transport and communication something like the city state of Singapore.
The proposal to develop 100 smart cities, which was cleared by the cabinet last week, makes not only cities in the one to four million population range eligible to be developed as smart cities, but also capitals of smaller states which have less than one million people. The criteria would de-facto make the capital of all North-eastern states eligible as most all capitals also happen to be the largest cities in their respective states.
Under the programme all states including the North East ones will get at least one smart city. A Special Purpose Vehicle will be created for each city to implement Smart City action plan. The SPV will be signed with the urban local body, state government and the Centre for implementation of the project.
The population criteria will also make Delhi, Srinagar, Goa, Shimla, Dehradun, Puducherry, Ranchi, Kavaratti, Chandigarh, Silvassa and Port Blair eligible to be developed. Though these cities will be eligible to get selected in stage one, they will also have to qualify the ‘city challenge competition’ to make it to the final list.
If they do not qualify the first time, they can reappear after making the necessary improvements in their proposals related to city development. “The Centre will provide the necessary hand holding so that their proposals make the cut,” sources said.
It is, however, the bigger states that stand to gain the most. According to the formula worked out by the UD ministry, the more populous a state is, the maximum number of smart cities it will get.
The formula gives a 50:50 weightage to a state’s population and the number of statutory towns it has.
This will benefit bigger states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat and West Bengal. However, of the eligible cities, only those that qualify in the competition will finally get selected.
The Centre will give Rs 48,000 crore for five years for the programme and each city will get Rs 100 crore per year.
A matching fund of Rs 48,000 crore will have to be contributed by states from their internal resources/ market borrowing and through private sector participation. An earlier concept note prepared by the UD ministry had envisaged investment requirement to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore annually.
The aim of the mega missions is to recast the urban landscape of the country to make urban areas more livable and inclusive besides driving the economic growth.
Under the Smart Cities Mission, each selected city would get central assistance of Rs.100 crore per year for five years.
This Mission of building 100 smart cities intends to promote adoption of smart solutions for efficient use of available assets, resources and infrastructure with the objective of enhancing the quality of urban life and providing a clean and sustainable environment.
Special emphasis will be given to participation of citizens in prioritizing and planning urban interventions.
Under smart cities initiative, focus will be on core infrastructure services like: Adequate and clean Water supply, Sanitation and Solid Waste Management, Efficient Urban Mobility and Public Transportation, Affordable housing for the 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.
