France’s leading development bank, Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD), has shown interest to fund India’s smart cities mission to the tune of 100 million euros (around Rs 800 crore) . Under the smart city mission, the government has so far identified 99 cities. This would require a total investment of about Rs 2.03 lakh crore.
Officials of Union Finance Ministry said that France’s AFD has said, it is interested in funding 100 million euros for smart cities mission, and the funding is expected to be finalised before President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to India next month.
The AFD finances and provides technical assistance to projects that improve daily livelihood in developing and emerging countries. AFD has been operating in India since 2008.
The official said while assistance from the World Bank has also been received for the smart city project, some countries like Germany and Japan are interested in providing technical know-how for infrastructure development.
The cities selected for smart city mission would be developed to have basic infrastructure through assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation.
Under the scheme, each city will get Rs 500 crore from the Centre for implementing various projects. An equal amount, on matching basis, will have to be contributed by the state or urban local bodies.
As per list of smart cities, Maharashtra has eight cities, followed by Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh having seven cities each. Gujarat has six cities in the list. Uttar Pradesh that had been given 13 smart city slots, of which it won 10. Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Meerut and Rampur are the three cities that missed out. Ghaziabad applied for the smart cities challenge for the fourth time.
The programme to develop 100 smart cities - 99 have been selected till now - has been allocated Rs 6169 crore in 2018-19 .
In January 2016, 20 cities were identified under the smart cities mission, followed by 13 cities in May 2016, 27 cities in September 2016 and 30 cities in June 2017. 9 more cities have been chosen in the fourth round in January 2018, taking the total tally to 99.
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 15,885 crore; while 1,987 projects worth Rs 1,01,992 crore are at detailed projects report stage.