The National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) has asked the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to allow it be involved in the funding of smart cities project through multi lateral/bilateral funds. It has requested the Ministry to amend the NCRPB Act for this purpose.
Sources said that the NCRPB has decided to approach the Department of Economic Affairs of Ministry of Finance to accord it approval to avail fresh loan or new credit line from multi-lateral or bi-lateral agency to participate in the infrastructure project under the smart cities mission.
According to officials, many projects are stuck up as local Governing bodies are unable to raise money from their own resources. Many cities are also facing difficulty in executing projects as citizens have opposed user charges for services provided under the mission.
According to NCRPB, as on September 2017, the Board provided financial assistance to 299 infrastructure development projects estimated to cost of Rs 29287 crore. Of these Rs 13520 crore have already been sanctioned. The Board has released Rs 9941 crore to various projects till date.
Besides, funding from the Centre , the Board had got a loan of 150 million dollars from Asian Development Bank. Similarly, German Development Bank had given 100 million Euro and one million Euro to it schemes such as water supply, sewerage, drainage, urban transport system and garbage management.
As per data provided by the Ministry of HUA in the smart cities projects, as on 17 January 2018, there are 2,948 projects worth Rs 1,38,730 crore in various stages of implementation. 189 projects worth Rs 2,237 crore have been completed, and implementation is underway for 495 projects with a cost of Rs 18,616 crore; furthers tenders have been floated for 277 projects with a cost of Rs crore; while 1,987 projects worth Rs 1,01,992 crore are at detailed projects report stage.
In a reply to a Right to Information, the Ministry has stated that only 5.2 percent of the total identified projects have been completed with just 1.4 percent of the total envisaged investment of Rs 1,38,730 crore till date. The slow pace of progress has worried the ministry and senior officials as nothing is visible on the ground. Of 99 cities that have approved smart city projects, only 31 have completed at least one. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) leads the chart with 23 completed projects, followed by Varanasi (16) and Raipur (10).
Twenty-seven cities have not issued a single tender for works to be carried out under the mission. Building smart cities was one of the major promises made by PM Modi in the runup to the 2014 lok Sabha elections.
The Centre provides financial support of Rs 500 crore to each of the 90 cities and a matching contribution has to be provided by the respective state governments. Since the launch of the mission in June 2015, the Centre has released Rs 9,718.20 crore. Cities will have to raise the balance funds through their own resources or by imposing user charges.
The duration of the mission is five years, from 2015-16 to 2019-20, as per the mission statement and guidelines.