Smart City mission: BJP-ruled states ahead in implementing plans

Nagpur, Indore, Surat, Vadodara, Udaipur are emerging among the top ones implementing the projects

Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled (BJP-ruled) states are outperforming others in embracing the Centre's Smart City mission with five cities -- Nagpur, Indore, Surat, Vadodara and Udaipur -- emerging among the top ones implementing the projects.

Ahead of the completion of two years of the mission in June, these cities have achieved an Investment Conversion Ratio (ICR) of 90 per cent and above, according to an analysis of the implementation of smart city projects.

ICR indicates the percentage of funds currently being used at the ground level for implementing the projects as against the funds approved by the Centre.

The Urban Development Ministry has approved smart city plans of 60 cities so far. 20 cities announced for the mission in January last year, followed by 13 in May and another 27 in September.

Indore, Surat, and Udaipur were among the first batch of 20cities announced in January last year. Nagpur and Vadodara, despite being selected in September last year, got into top league within a short span, an official said.

The first batch of 20 cities, with a total approved investment of Rs 48,064 crore, is set to achieve an ICR of 49 per cent by June this year. The ICR of the 13 announced in May is about 4 per cent and 21 per cent in the case of 27 cities announced in September.

A total investment of Rs 1,31,762 crore has been approved for the 60 cities.

The performance of the first batch in implementation of smart city plans is encouraging, though some of them, particularly, the southern cities need to pick up momentum, an official said.

The southern cities are Kochi (Kerala), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Davanagere (Karnataka), Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), Belagavi (Karnataka) and Chennai (Tamil Nadu).

Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, however, is progressing well with an ICR of 55 per cent.

Nagpur, among the 27 cities announced in September last year, took the top slot with a remarkable ICR of 249 per cent. The city has lined up investment of Rs 2,500 crore as against the Rs 1,002 crore investment proposed in the approved smart city plan.

The investment on the ground is more than the planned investment approved by the Centre as the city is garnering funds from other sources for implementing the projects.

Indore and Surat took the second position with each recording 96 per cent ICR.

Investment approved for Indore stood at Rs 5,099 crore while the investments for the projects completed or under implementation was to the tune of Rs 4,900 crore.

Surat's investment approval was Rs 2,597 crore, while investment for ground-level implementation stood at Rs 2,500 crore.

Vadodara came in third recording 95 per cent ICR, followed by Udaipur (90 per cent), Ahmedabad (85 per cent), Ludhiana (76 per cent), Pune (72 per cent) and Jabalpur (70 per cent).

Bhubaneswar's ICR stood at 68 per cent, followed by Kota (65 per cent), Kalyan-Dombivalli (63 per cent), Kakinada (55 per cent), Ajmer (45 per cent), Jaipur (36 per cent), New Delhi Municipal Council (33 per cent) and Thane (22 per cent).