14 projects completed in Kohima under smart city mission

Dimapur, Aug. 11 (EMN): As many as 14 projects amounting to INR 286. 31 crore have been completed in Nagaland’s state capital, Kohima under the smart city mission (SCM), indicating a considerable progress since its selection as one of the 100 smart cities in India.

The total number of projects for Kohima, to be developed into a smart city, is 20 with a total cost projection of INR 409.34 crore, according to an update by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

The remaining INR 123. 03 crore worth six projects are currently in the work-order stage, the ministry informed.

It said that smart cities were expected to complete all the projects within five years from the date of selection.

The selection of 100 smart cities was completed through four rounds of selection from January 2016 to June 2018.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs updated that the government of India had released INR 23,925.83 crore as the central share to the states/union territories (UTs), out of which INR 20,410.14 crore (85%) has been utilised by the smart cities. It added that 2,781 projects worth INR 48,150 crore have been completed under smart cities mission.

Among the selected smart cities in north-eastern states, Agartala has the maximum number of projects with 81, followed by Aizawl with 31, Shillong 12, Guwahati 10, and Imphal seven.

Meanwhile, Arunachal Pradesh has two smart cities – Itanagar with nine projects and Pasighat with 18.

In Maharashtra, eight cities namely, Aurangabad, Kalyan-Dombivali, Nagpur, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Solapur and Thane have been selected for development as smart cities. The government of India has released INR 2,128.23 crore for smart cities of the state, out of which INR 1,920.92 crore (90%) has already been utilised.

“Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) regularly interacts with the states/ UTs and smart cities through video conferences, review meetings, field visits, regional workshops etc. at various levels to assess the performance of the cities and to handhold them for improving the same. Besides, the guidance of domain experts participating in the regional workshops, cities also benefit from peer-to-peer learning during these interactions,” read the update from the ministry.

At the state-level, High Powered Steering Committee (HPSC) chaired by the chief secretary has been established, while at the national level, the implementation of SCM is being monitored by an apex committee headed by secretary, MoHUA. The geo-spatial management information system (GMIS) of the SCM collates project data in real-time, thus enabling effective monitoring of project progress, it added.