82 SPVs formed in Smart Cities Mission

Around 82 SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) have been formed according to Smart Cities Mission Project.

“This is also first time that cities have created an institutional mechanism (SPVs) at the city level. Till now 82 SPVs have been formed and considering the capacity gaps existing at cities, this is not a small achievement by any standards,” said Hardeep S. Puri, Minister of State (I/C) for Housing & Urban Affairs.

“For the first-time cities are also thinking in terms of converging the objectives, resources and processes of different projects taken up by various agencies towards realization of a common vision. Today every project taken up at the cities are appraised by smart city SPVs in terms of public value it creates. This has led to an improved coordination and efficiency in delivery of services at cities,” added Puri.

There are about 3,000 projects worth Rs.140,000 crores at various stages of implementation. Tenders for projects worth Rs 16,000 crore have been called, and more than 1 lakh crore worth of projects are being readied for issuance of tenders. This remains one of the fastest ever project implementations at this scale and geographic spread in urban sector.

“Smart City Mission has a strong focus on innovative digital technologies and dovetails with Digital India ‘vision areas’—digital empowerment of citizens, making government services available digitally, and creating digital infrastructure as utility to every citizen—very closely. Digital Technology solutions, such as surveillance systems lead to greatly reduced crime and improved safety of residents particularly women.

City wide Wi-Fi networks have improved communication among citizens, E-governance and citizen feedback management has led to improved social cohesion by increase in opportunities for citizen engagement, reduction in social inequities and reduction in response time for services for business. Integrated traffic management will increase the traffic speeds and reduce traffic congestions and hence cleaner air for people to breathe.