In the approach to the Smart Cities Mission, the objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions. The Smart Cities Mission is meant to set examples that can be replicated both within and outside the Smart City, catalyzing the creation of similar Smart Cities in various regions and parts of the country. The core infrastructure elements in a Smart City would include-:

• Adequate water supply
• Assured electricity supply
• Sanitation, including solid waste management
• Efficient urban mobility and public transport
• Affordable housing, especially for the poor
• Robust IT connectivity and digitalization
• Good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation
• Sustainable environment
• Safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly
• Health and education

Coverage and Duration-:

• The Mission will cover 100 cities and its duration will be five years (FY2015-16 to FY2019-20). The Mission may be continued thereafter in the light of an evaluation to be done by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and incorporating the leanings into the Mission.

Strategy

• 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.
• Retrofitting will introduce planning in an existing built-up area to achieve Smart City objectives, along with other objectives, to make the existing area more efficient and livable. In retrofitting, an area consisting of more than 500 acres will be identified by the city in consultation with citizens.
• Redevelopment will effect a replacement of the existing built-up environment and enable cocreation of a new layout with enhanced infrastructure using mixed land use and increased density.
• Greenfield development will introduce most of the Smart Solutions in a previously vacant area (more than 250 acres) using innovative planning, plan financing and plan implementation tools (e.g. land pooling/ land reconstitution) with provision for affordable housing, especially for the poor.
• Pan-city development envisages application of selected Smart Solutions to the existing city-wide infrastructure. Application of Smart Solutions will involve the use of technology, information and data to make infrastructure and services better.

 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.

Financing a Smart City-:

• The Smart City Mission will be operated as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) and the Central Government proposes to give financial support to the Mission to the extent of Rs. 48,000 crores over five years i.e. on an average Rs. 100 crore per city per year.
•  An equal amount, on a matching basis, will have to be contributed by the State/ULB; therefore, nearly Rupees one lakh crore of Government/ULB funds will be available for Smart Cities development.

Challenges in Design and Implementation

Design-:

• The smart city concept implies an oversimplified vision of technology. It is based on the belief that technology can solve any problem without fundamentally changing lifestyles.
• Given a country as diverse as India, the heterogeneity of its cities cannot be accommodated in a linear vision backed by technology.
• The combined funding from the union and state governments, as well as the urban local bodies, for all cities is less than Rs 1 lakh crore. This is a disproportionately small sum for the scale of ambition involved in a project to develop 100 SmartCities.
•  Smart city project along with other city development initiatives have sidelined state ministries and agencies by establishing direct contact and transfer of funds. The municipal commissioners, who are trained to administer the city services, are struggling to make the transition in their roles from city administrator to a city planner.

Implementation-:

• Implementation has been weakest link of urban infrastructure projects. Nearly 54 per cent of such projects taken up in major cities under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) are yet to be completed. Same could be the fate with Smart Cities.
• JNNURM partially relied on private sector investments to speed up its implementation. However, private investors refused to come forward. Out of 2,900 JNNURM projects, only 50 projects were backed by the PPP model, with a private sector capital investment of just about Rs. 1,000 crore, which barely covered 0.2 per cent of the total project cost.
• The total estimate of investment requirements for the smart city comes to Rs 7 lakh crore over 20 years which translates into Rs.35000 crore annually. Raising this capital from private players will require huge efforts on part of government.
• Most ULBs have limited technical capacity to ensure timely and cost-effective implementation and subsequent operations and maintenance of smart city projects owing to limited recruitment over a number of years along with inability of the ULBs to attract best of talent at market competitive compensation rates.
• For timely completion of the project, all clearances should use online processes and be cleared in a timebound manner. Considering the delays in earlier projects its challenging to secure timely clearances.
• Building capacity for 100 smart cities is not an easy task and most ambitious projects are delayed owing to lack of quality manpower, both at the centre and state levels. The allocation made for capacity building is meager as compared to the requirement over next five years.