KOHIMA, INDIA (Smart Cities News): As many as 14 projects amounting to Rs. 286.31 crore have been completed in Nagaland’s state capital, Kohima, under the smart city mission, indicating considerable progress since its selection as one of the 100 smart cities in India.
Kohima’s total number of projects to be developed into a smart city is 20, with a total cost projection worth Rs. 409.34 crore. According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA) statement, the remaining Rs.123.03 crore worth six projects are currently in the work order stage. According to ministry officials, smart Cities were expected to complete all the projects within five years from the selection date.
However, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA) updated the report and said that the government has released Rs. 23,925.83 crore as the central share to the states and union territories, out of which Rs. 20,410.14 crores have been utilised by the smart cities and 2,781 projects worth Rs. 48,150 crores have been completed under the smart cities mission.
Among the selected smart cities in north-eastern states, Agartala has the maximum number of projects with 81, Aizawl with 31, Shillong with 12, Imphal with 7 and Guwahati with 10 under SCM.
In Maharashtra, eight cities, namely Aurangabad, Kalyan-Dombivali, Nagpur, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Solapur and Thane, have been selected for the development as smart cities. As a result, the government has released Rs. 2,128.23 crore for smart cities, Rs. 1,920.92 crores have already been utilised.
MOHUA regularly interacts with the states/ UTs in smart cities projects through video conferencing, review meetings, field visits, regional workshops, online meetings etc., at various levels to assess the cities’ performance and handhold them for improving the same. Besides the guidance of domain experts participating in the regional workshops, states and UTs also benefit from peer-to-peer learning during these interactions.
At the state level, high powered steering committee chaired by the chief secretary has been established. In contrast, at the national level, the implementation of SCM is being monitored by an apex committee headed by the secretary, MOHUA. In addition, the ministry added that the geospatial management information system of the SCM collates project data in real-time, thus enabling effective monitoring of project progress.