7 Years of Smart Cities Mission, India – A Review https://www.cenfa.org/7-years-of-smart-cities-mission-india-a-review/
By Gaurav Dwivedi and Kenneth Gomes | September 14, 2022
This report is aimed at assessing the targets set under the mission; and what has been achieved so far. A thorough and complete assessment of SCM would involve asking fundamental questions about the need for these projects; questions of whom they are meant to benefit, and whether decision-making on choice of projects and priorities accorded to them was democratic. ..The data used for the study has been accessed from the Smart Cities Mission website dashboard to project a national picture of the status of work under the mission.
The full report is available at https://www.cenfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/7-Years-of-Smart-City-Missions-in-India-A-Review.pdf
although the Smart Cities Mission nears completion, several questions remain: The
future of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), for instance. Will these continue to own/operate
and maintain these projects? Financial support to SPVs for constructing new projects and
operating existing ones, and the long-term impact of SPVs on existing structures of
governance, especially given the increasing privatisation of public assets and services,
remains to be addressed. Will there be universal access to these public services in future?
Will we see increase in tariffs for using these services?
..The use of online mediums and social media platforms for consultation with local people for
voting on projects needed in area-based development led to the exclusion of various
marginalized communities due to non-accessibility to the internet -- in Bhopal, lack of local
participation happened since voting was done via social media platforms, and the poor
had no access to the internet. In Tumakuru, upon interviewing members of urban deprived
communities including Pourakarmikas, Underground Drainage System workers, street-
vendors and leaders and activists of organizations working across various low-income
settlements, it was found that they were not included in any survey or outreach programme
during the development of the Smart City Proposal. Exclusion of such communities is also
prominent in the implemented projects and expenditure.