The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has extended the Smart Cities Mission for another year till June 2024. This is the second time that the mission has been given an extension and the ministry has stated that the step has been taken to ensure completion of the pending projects.

The extension has been given following requests from several Smart City managements, requesting more time for the projects as the work slowed down during the Covid lockdown period.

A senior official of the mission said, “The Covid lockdowns saw several major projects being delayed and while the work resumed soon after the situation was better, the backlog for some of the projects is still pending.”

It may be recalled that in June 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the mission under which 100 cities were selected in two stages. The first phase of work under it was to be completed initially by June 2021.

As the Covid-19 pandemic delayed the timely completion of the projects, the mission was extended in 2021 till 30 June, 2023. Earlier, the cities were chosen in two stages, and development work or project execution did not begin for at least 18 months after the cities were chosen because they needed time to establish Special Purpose Vehicles and fulfil other conditions.

A total of 7,804 projects worth Rs 1,81,322 crore have been sanctioned under the mission in 100 cities, the ministry told Parliament in February. The ministry said 72 per cent of the projects worth Rs 1,07,000 crore were to be completed till 30 April, 2023.

As per information, Rs 8000 crore has been allocated for the mission for 2023-24. Officials said the budgetary allocation is sufficient to complete the sanctioned projects.

As part of the mission, 1104 smart mobility projects worth Rs 22,785 crore have been completed so far while 526 projects are at advanced stages of development. Similarly, 984 public spaces have been developed in cities at a cost of Rs 5861 crore. Work is going on to develop 343 more such spaces.