India spent ₹1.5L crore on smart-cities in 10 years: Report
What's the story
The Indian government has spent more than ₹1.5 lakh crore under the Smart Cities Mission, a flagship project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that was launched in June 2015, CNBCTV18 reported. The massive amount of ₹1.5 lakh crore has been spent on the 7,504 projects completed till April 11, 2023, representing a staggering 94% of the planned projects worth over ₹1.64 lakh crore. Another ₹13,142 crore worth of projects are presently in development.
Investment distribution
Major states and cities benefiting from the investment
Most of the funds, nearly 92%, went to 21 large states. Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra together make up a whopping one-third of this spend, SBI Research data shows. The top 25 cities, including Varanasi (UP), New Town (WB), Srinagar (J&K), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), and Indore (MP), drew around ₹51,725 crore, or around 31% of the total funds.
Project distribution
Focus areas of the Smart Cities Mission
Mobility and water/sanitation projects have been prioritized under the Smart Cities Mission, accounting for nearly half the total funds. This funding will be used for over 3,000 projects across cities. The initiative is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme under which the Union government will contribute up to ₹48,000 crore over five years (or an average of ₹100 crore per city per year), to be matched by state governments.