Government Extends Deadline Of Smart Cities Mission Till June 2024

The government has extended the deadline for its flagship Smart City Mission by one more year, till June 2024.

Officials said several states sought the extension of time to complete all the ongoing projects under this mission.

The mission was launched on 25 June 2015 and 100 cities were selected for redevelopment through a two-stage competition from January 2016 to June 2018.    

Officials said on-ground project execution began at least 18 months post city selection as the process of setting up of specialised entities or special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and appointment of CEOs and other manpower took time.

They added that June 2023 was set as the mission deadline so that all selected cities got five years for completing the projects, though some of the cities, which were selected in the first round, started projects before 2018.

According to Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry data, so far the Centre has released around Rs 38,000 crore to 100 cities and the state governments and municipal bodies have released nearly Rs 33,000 crore.

Government data also show that till now projects worth Rs 1.07 lakh crore have been completed across these cities.

Under this mission, diverse and complex projects in all areas of urban governance such as mobility, environment, public safety, disaster resilience, health, education, housing, water, sanitation and waste management have been undertaken.

Officials claimed that the execution of such projects take more time since these are inter-disciplinary and involve coordination between various government departments.

"Despite that being the case, around 5,700 projects (72 per cent) worth Rs 1.07 lakh crore (60 per cent)  have been completed by 30 April. Around 50 cities have completed close to 75 per cent of their projects and are on track to complete remaining works by June 2023.

More than 66 per cent projects in small cities and over 80 per cent projects in the large metros have been completed,” an official said.

The Ministry data show that 232 projects on Public Private Partnership (PPP) worth Rs 15,006 crore have been taken up across 53 cities.