Centre Lists Conditions for Getting Smart City Label

October 8, 2014

CHENNAI: Cities along the coast, hills as well as those having a population between one to four million could be among the 100 to be developed as Smart Cities.

Official sources said that the Union Ministry of Urban Development has circulated a draft concept note to State governments on a set of proposed conditions for eligibility for the smart city tag.

Sources said the Centre has sought proposals for approval of satellite cities, cities of tourist and religious importance as well as cities in the 0.2-1 million population range. These proposals are likely to be reviewed by a committee before approval by the Central government.

Sources said that the approval process would have two stages. In the first stage, cities and states would have to submit an Integrated Smart City Development Plan, based on the Smart City Reference Framework.

Thereafter, cities would be sanctioned an initial amount for preparation of professional and comprehensive project reports. Under the second stage, the Project Reports would be evaluated by designated Project Management Units and finally approved by an Empowered Committee.

Cities that desire to participate in the smart city programme should develop a financing plan along with their smart city development plan and detailed project reports. Sources said the financing plan developed for a city or urban agglomeration could factor in resources from multiple government agencies and departments — not restricted to the ambit of urban development schemes alone. It is also learnt that the Union government has suggested a set of 13 benchmarks for smart cities — transport, spatial planning, water supply, sewerage, sanitation, solid waste management, storm water drainage, electricity, telephone connections, wi-fi connectivity, healthcare facilities, education, firefighting and others like renewable energy as well as adopting green building norms.

Both the states and Centre are banking on the private sector for developing smart cities. Sources said that using an average figure of one million people in each of the 100 smart cities, the total estimate of investment requirements for the services covered by high power expert committee comes to `7 lakh crore over 20 years.

This translates into an annual requirement of `35,000 crore. However, these estimates need to be analysed for the purpose of funding.

Source:The Indian Express