Cities in BJP/NDA-ruled States — Nagpur, Indore, Surat, Vadodara and Udaipur — have emerged on top in implementing the Centre’s Smart City Mission projects. Ahead of the completion of two years of the mission in June, these cities have achieved an Investment Conversion Ratio (ICR) of 90 per cent and above.
Interestingly, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has achieved only 33 per cent of total approved investment of `1,897 crore. ICR indicates the percentage of funds currently being used at the ground level for implementing the projects as against the funds approved by the Centre.
The Urban Development Ministry has approved smart city plans of 60 cities so far. At least 20 cities announced for the Smart City mission project in January last year, followed by 13 in May and another 27 in September.
As per data released by the Ministry, Indore, Surat, and Udaipur were among the first batch of 20 cities announced in January last year. Nagpur and Vadodara, despite being selected in September last year, got into top league within a short span. Nagpur, among the 27 cites announced in September last year, took the top slot with a remarkable ICR of 249 per cent.
The investment on the ground is more than the planned investment approved by the Centre as the city is garnering funds from other sources for implementing the projects. Indore and Surat took the second position with each recording 96 per cent ICR. Investment approved for Indore stood at `5,099 crore while the investments for the projects completed or under implementation was to the tune of `4,900 crore. Surat’s investment approval was `2,597 crore, while investment for ground-level implementation stood at `2,500 crore.
The first batch of 20 cities, with a total approved investment of `48,064 crore, is set to achieve an ICR of 49 per cent by June this year. The ICR of the 13 announced in May is about 4 per cent and 21 per cent in the case of 27 cities announced in September.
A total investment of `1,31,762 crore has been approved for the 60 cities. The performance of first batch in implementation of smart city plans is encouraging, though some of them, particularly, the southern cities need to pick up momentum.
Vadodara came in third recording 95 per cent ICR, followed by Udaipur (90 per cent), Ahmedabad (85 per cent), ludhiana (76 per cent), Pune (72 per cent) and Jabalpur (70 per cent). Bhubaneswar's ICR stood at 68 per cent, followed by Kota (65 percent), Kalyan-Dombivalli (63 per cent), Kakinada (55 per cent), Ajmer (45 per cent), Jaipur (36 per cent), New Delhi Municipal Council (33 per cent) and Thane (22 per cent).