Smart Cities Mission

About the Mission

Smart Cities Mission is an urban renewal and retrofitting program launched by the Government of India in 2015 with the mission to develop 100 cities across the country making them citizen friendly and sustainable.
The Smart Cities Mission is meant to set examples that can be replicated both within and outside the Smart City, catalysing the creation of similar Smart Cities in various regions and parts of the country.
The strategic components of area-based development in the Smart Cities Mission are city improvement (retrofitting), city renewal (redevelopment) and city extension (greenfield development) plus a Pan-city initiative in which Smart Solutions are applied covering larger parts of the city.

Implementation

The implementation of the Mission at the City level will be done by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) created for the purpose.
The SPV will plan, appraise, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate the Smart City development projects.
Each smart city will have a SPV which will be headed by a full time CEO and have nominees of Central Government, State Government and ULB on its Board.

Key Objectives of the Mission

To provide a fillip to the development of new and innovative smart solutions that directly impact the needs of cities;
To ensure availability of funding for practice research of direct relevance to the outcomes desired under the missions;
To make available a large body of pilot-tested and proven smart solutions that can be adopted by cities as per their specific needs; and
To promote a culture of innovation within the urban sector.

Why in News?

The Central Government has released more than 27 thousand crore rupees so far under the Smart Cities Mission. Over 22 thousand crore rupees has already been utilized out of the total released amount. Six thousand 452 projects worth more than one lakh 84 thousand crore rupees have been tendered so far.

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