NEW DELHI, 2 Dec: The union housing & urban affairs ministry has extended the timeline for the implementation of the Smart Cities Mission to June 2023 due to the Covid pandemic and other reasons, a senior official said on Thursday.
According to an earlier deadline, the cities were expected to complete their projects within five years of being selected under the Smart Cities Mission.
The official said all the 100 smart cities selected under the mission will now have to complete their projects by June 2023.
One hundred smart cities had been selected through four rounds of competition from January 2016 to June 2018. The ministry had launched the Smart Cities Mission on 25 June, 2015.
“The timeline for the implementation of the Smart Cities Mission has been extended to June 2023 due to Covid pandemic and other reasons. Cities that have been selected in 2016 or 2018 will have to complete their projects under the mission by June 2023,” the official told PTI.
In the past, the government came under criticism from the opposition over the implementation of the smart cities mission, one of the flagship programmes of the BJP government.
According to the ministry, the objective of the Smart Cities Mission is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to their citizens and a clean and sustainable environment through the application of smart solutions.
Recently, the union housing & urban affairs ministry had said that, as of 12 November, 2021, these smart cities have tendered out 6,452 projects worth Rs 1,84,998 crores. Out of these, work orders have been issued in 5,809 projects worth Rs 1,56,571 crores and 3,131 of those projects worth Rs 53,175 crores have been completed, it said.
Till the same period, the central government has released Rs 27,235 crores to states and union territories for their smart cities.
In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore said the period of implementation of the Smart Cities Mission has been extended up to June 2023.
Asked whether more cities are being considered under the mission in Gujarat, the minister said that presently, there is no such proposal under consideration of the central government. (PTI)