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Raipur, July 03, 2024: The Government of India has extended the Smart Cities Mission period till the end of this financial year 2024-25.
“As works under the Smart Cities Mission are not fully completed some states had requested to extend the Mission period and taking that into consideration the Mission period has been extended till March 31, 2025,” official sources said.
The Mission has been getting multiple requests from some States and City government representatives to grant some more time as many balanced ongoing projects are in advanced stage of implementation and got delayed due to various on-ground conditions.
“It is in the interest of people, that these projects get complete and contribute towards the ease of living in their urban areas. Taking cognizance of these requests, the Government of India has extended the Mission period up to 31 March 2025 to complete these balance projects,” sources said.
This extension has been informed to the cities that it would be without any additional cost, beyond the already approved financial allocation under the Mission. All ongoing projects are now expected to be completed before 31 March 2025.
Since its inception in June 2015, the Mission has attempted several innovative ideas, like competition among cities for selection of 100 smart cities, stakeholder driven project selection, formation of smart city Special Purpose Vehicles for implementation, deployment of technology and digital solutions for improving urban governance, third-party impact evaluation by premier academic and professional institutes.
Each of the 100 Cities have developed a diverse set of projects, many of which very unique and being implemented for the first time, thus improving the Cities’ capability and experience and achieving larger transformational goals at the city level.
More than 8,000+ multi-sectoral projects are being developed by the 100 Cities amounting to around ₹ 1.6 lakh crore.
As on July 3, 2024, the 100 cities have completed 7,188 projects (90 per cent of total projects) amounting to ₹ 1,44,237 crore as part of the Mission. The balance 830 projects amounting to ₹ 19,926 crore are also in advanced stages of completion.
On the financial progress, the Mission has an allocated government of India budget of ₹ 48,000 crore for the 100 cities. As on date, Centre has released ₹ 46,585 crore (97 per cent of the allocated budget) to 100 cities. Out of these funds released to the Cities, 93 per cent have been utilized as on date. The Mission has also released full central financial support under the Mission to 74 out of 100 Cities, the sources said.
