Smart City Mission to wind up after March 2022!

Aurangabad, June 21:

The union Government had selected 100 cities, including 10 of Maharashtra, under Smart City Mission in 2015. However, not a single Smart City could complete 100 percent of the works for the last six years. Ironically, Aurangabad will sustain a huge loss, as the Mission would not be extended after March 2022!

The joint secretary of Smart City Mission, Kunal Kumar, held a virtual (online) meeting with all the chief executive officers (CEO) of the state's 10 Smart Cities on Monday. During the interaction, he alerted the CEOs to complete the pending

works on hand on priority as the Mission would not be given an extension from the new financial year.

As reported earlier, the union Government had set parameters and stages of financial expenses while launching the Mission. However, the demands and needs of each city are different. The situation also varies. All the municipal corporations faced inconvenience while preparing the detailed project report (DPR) and implement them. Few of the proposed projects were canceled and later on, new ones were approved. As a result, no city completed 100 percent of the development works proposed under the Mission. The majority of them are lying pending as of today.

In the review meeting, Kunal Kumar has obtained the status of proposed works under Smart City Mission. He inquired about the total number of works completed, number of pending works, number of works whose tender had been invited, number of projects whose work orders had been issued, number of works on estimate stage, etc. He ordered them to complete the works on hand by March 2022 and also made it clear that the Mission will not be given an extension from the new financial year, said the CEO of Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited (ASCDCL), A K Pandey while speaking to media persons.

10 Smart Cities of Maharashtra

Smart City Mission was the dream project of the union Government. The state's 10 cities selected under the Mission are Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivili, Nasik, Pune, Aurangabad, Amravati, Nagpur, and Solapur.