23 cities participating in fast track competition informed of gaps in their smart city proposals

Ministry of Urban Development Minister has communicated the gaps in respective Smart City Proposals to 23 cities that are participating in the ‘Fast track competition’ so that they can submit improved proposals by the stipulated date of April 15, 2016. These cities are spread over 23 States and Union Territories that could not make it to the first batch of 20 winning cities announced last month by the Minister of Urban Development M.Venkaiah Naidu. Naidu, while announcing the winners said that one city ranked top in each of these 23 States and UTs in the first round of competition would be given an opportunity to compete in an accelerated competition by improving their smart city proposals based on the gaps identified by the evaluation teams. In the list of first batch of 20 smart city winners, cities from 12 States and UTs were included. Gaps identified in the Smart City Proposals of these 23 cities ranged from deficiencies in self-assessment of cities, disconnect between city vision and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of cities, citizens’ aspirations not being reflected in the vision document, disconnect between strategic plan and implementation plan of respective cities, lack of clarity and consistency in the action plans proposed, inconsistencies in costs and resource mobilization plans, weak convergence of different schemes of central and state governments, feasibility of implementation plans, non-submission of required Resolutions from respective urban local bodies in support of the claims made in the plans, too ambitious proposals, inadequacies in respect of setting up of critical Special Purpose Vehicle etc. To help these 23 cities make winning Smart City Proposals, the Ministry of Urban Development will soon organize a day long Workshop to enable them learn from the characteristics of winner cities, bridge identified gaps, formulate credible resource mobilization and feasible implementation plans etc. As per the Smart City Mission Guidelines approved by the Government, only 20 cities were to be selected in the first year and 40 each in the subsequent two years for extending financial support. Cities are selected based on the ‘credibility’ and ‘doability’ of smart city proposals which are evaluated based on a set of criteria formulated after extensive consultations with states and UTs. Competition based selection of cities is a unique feature of Smart City Mission ensuring total objectivity and transparency. Evaluation of proposals is done by three independent teams of foreign and Indian experts in the fields of urban planning and financing.