Agartala: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in its latest report on the evaluation of smart city project implementation noted that out of 20 worst-performing Smart City projects, 10 are from the North East region. According to reports, Guwahati the biggest city of North East secured the 97th position in the list of 100 cities with a track record of completing 50 percent of the total projects till December 2023.
Guwahati has initiated 22 projects with a budget of Rs 945 crore, of which only 11 projects, costing Rs 103 crore, have been completed. The remaining 11 projects, worth Rs 842 crore, are still in the work order stage.
Imphal stands at 76th place, with approximately 48 percent of work completed. Out of the 25 projects undertaken in Imphal amounting to Rs 513 crore, only 12 projects worth Rs 55 crore have been finished.
Other Northeastern cities facing challenges in project completion include Gangtok (ranked 95), Aizawl (94), Shillong (93), Itanagar (92), Agartala (89), Pasighat (86), Namchi (72), and Kohima (59).
In the Northeast, out of a total of 360 projects worth Rs 7,737 crore, approximately half, or 163 projects worth Rs 5,305 crore, are still in the work-order stage.
Among these, in Shillong and Gangtok, only four and six projects, respectively, have been completed, with work ongoing on 17 and 38 projects.
In Agartala, pan-city projects worth Rs 138 crore have been completed so far. According to the available information, the revised estimates of the ASCM projects stand at Rs 2062 crore. Despite repeated attempts no one from the project could be connected for a comment on the matter.
The ministry acknowledged that many smart cities in the region cannot plan and execute projects worth thousands of crores of rupees. To address this, the Centre-State share ratio for 13 Himalayan States and Northeastern States was revised from 50:50 to 90:10.
Despite the revised funding ratio, the smart mission could not make much improvement in its status. The Ministry has expressed concerns over the slow-paced development of the projects.
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The Smart Cities Mission, launched by the Government of India on June 25, 2015, aims to promote cities that offer core infrastructure, a clean and sustainable environment, and a decent quality of life through smart solutions. A total of 100 cities were selected through different rounds between 2015 and 2018, with the mission being operated as a centrally sponsored scheme.
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