Firm for preparation of Imphal Smart City not assigned
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, November 01 2015 : Even after 88 cities included in the Smart City Mission have identified consulting firms for preparation of city-wise Smart City Action Plans, 10 cities including Imphal from Northeastern States and Union Territories (UT) are yet to be assigned their consulting firms.

It was expected that the firms will be identified soon after the announcement made for the 88 cities.

The Government of India had already announced that mission cities have picked up consultants for preparation of Smart City Plans and that 37 consulting firms including foreign companies will prepare plans for the 88 cities.

It may be mentioned that amongst the proposed Smart Cities for the Northeast region, Data World Pty Ltd in association with Innovest Advisory Services Pvt Ltd and Caritas Eco Systems Pvt Ltd had been assigned for Namchi (Sikkim); Arki Techno Consultants (India) Pvt Ltd and IRS Systems South Asia Pvt Ltd for Aizawl (Mizoram) and Feedback Infra Pvt Ltd in association with Happold Engineers India Pvt Ltd and CISCO Systems for Agartala (Tripura).

The selected consulting firms are expected to prepare smart city proposals under the supervision of urban local bodies and state governments based on review of previous plans and interventions undertaken.

Smart City Plans shall contain area development action plans and financing plan for the complete life cycle of the proposal.

Foreign companies or their Indian associates are associated with the preparation of smart city plans for most of the cities.

Quick selection of consultants through tendering by the Mission cities has been enabled by the Ministry of Urban Development drawing up a panel of consultants for each region.

All city-wise Smart City Plans will be evaluated in the second stage of City Challenge competition for identifying the top ranking 20 cities for financing during the current financial year.

It has been reported that Ministry of Urban Development would provide Rs 100 crore to each city over the next five years.

The Centre has set aside Rs 48,000 crore for the Mission and the money will be released to urban local bodies at frequent intervals in the next five years.

The Government of India has also asked the State governments to generate the equal matching amount as the grand total of the Smart City Mission is estimated at Rs 96,000 crore.

The formula gives equal weightage (50:50) to urban population of the State/UT and the number of statutory towns in the State/UT.

Based on this formula, each State/UT will, therefore, have a certain number of potential smart cities, with each State/UT having at least one.

The distribution of smart cities will be reviewed after two years of the implementation of the Mission.

Based on an assessment of the performance of States in the Challenge, some re-allocation of the remaining potential smart cities among States may be required to be done by Ministry of Urban Development.

The project cost of each smart city proposal will vary depending upon the level of ambition, model, capacity to execute and repay.

It is anticipated that substantial funds will be required to implement the smart city proposal and towards this end, Government grants of both the Centre and State, will be leveraged to attract funding from internal and external sources.

The yearly instalment of funds will be released after the States submits City Score Card every quarter to the Ministry of Urban Development besides satisfactory physical and financial progress as shown in the Utilization Certificate.

Annual City Score Card; achievement of milestones must also be submitted in the roadmap.

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