BS Number Wise: Smart City Mission is slow and slipping

Plan to develop 100 urban centres is unable to meet deadlines or fully use funds but keeps adding new projects to its list

When the government announced the Smart City Mission in 2015, it set a six-year timeline to develop 100 cities with the best infrastructure by 2021. A total of 20 cities were selected that year, but as more places were added in 2016 and 2017 the completion deadline was shifted to 2022. Last year, the deadline was shifted yet again to June 2023.

An analysis of the government’s digital dashboard on the Mission shows that of the 6,782 projects only 51 per cent, or 3,463, are complete in the 100 cities. The June 2023 timeline looks difficult.

Of the Rs 1.89