Chhattisgarh will have to compete aggressively for getting a ‘Smart City’ status for its high-tech administrative capital Naya Raipur as the Centre seems to be in no mood to dole out the status without the States meeting its highly stringent urban development parameters. Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation M Venkaiah Naidu has clearly stated that all cities and towns seeking to participate in these schemes will be profiled based on specific parameters that have a bearing on their ability to address issues of governance reforms, resource mobilization, execution etc.
The Minister further said that while addressing the issue of geographical spread, only the deserving will be assisted. It may be recalled that on January 16 this year, Naidu while addressing Consultative Workshop on Urban Governance’ organized for Municipal Commissioners of 130 cities and towns from nine northern states of Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan in New Delhi had informed that his Ministry is currently working on a ‘City Challenge’ framework with the objective of selecting right city candidates for participation in schemes like building 100 smart cities and development of 500 cities and towns.
He revealed : ‘It will not be business as usual in the matter of financing of cities and towns under new urban initiatives and instead, it will be based on the ability of urban local bodies to reform urban governance and rise to the new challenges.’ Naidu referred to the present appalling state of affairs in urban areas which is marked by weak urban governance structures, uninspiring leadership at the level of both selected and elected urban managers, poor inventory management and resource base, weak urban planning and execution, urban mobility being a nightmarish experience, housing shortage, inadequate water and power supply and despicable management of solid waste and treatment of sewerage etc.
In terms of service parameters, Naidu noted that only 73 litres of water per capita per day is being supplied as against the norm of 135 litres, only 50% of households having water connection, 40% households with toilet facilities, treatment of only 16% of sewerage, collection and disposal of only 23% of solid waste and recycling only 10% of city waste.
Referring to the investment needs for urban initiatives, the Minister had stated that about Rs 40 lakh crore is required for provision of basic infrastructure besides another Rs 20 lakh crore for Operation & Maintenance of urban utilities over the next 20 years, another Rs 15 lakh crore for meeting housing shortage besides Rs 60,009 cr for sanitation. The total investment needs comes to about US $ 1200 billion, most of which has to come from private sources.
Stating that private investment flows would be dependent on the confidence of investors in urban local bodies including their governance capacities, credit worthiness and city management.