Checking route to Smart Cities in Tamil Nadu

To execute the project, the state government should form a special purpose vehicle for every city, incorporating expertise from international organisations such as World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency and UN Habitat.

The SPV will function as a corporate company with CEO. Besides as per ministry of urban development (MoUD) guidelines there should be an advisory forum for each smart city comprising union and state officials, local representatives and members of residents welfare associations. This will take a lot of time, an official said.

However the project without a specific deadline and tedious procedures and with the MoUD not prescribing any particular model to be adopted for Smart Cities, the project will witness delay, the official said. There are bureaucratic and long procedures to be followed to get funds.

The selected 12 cities, including 10 municipal corporations, will now prepare their Smart City Proposals (SCP) containing the vision, plan for mobilisation of resources and intended outcome in terms of infrastructure upgradation and smart applications and there will be again another screening of the SCP taking the competition for the next stage.

The state government is quiet on the subject as every state is eyeing on the Central Government funds, but the procedures are too long and non descriptive, unlike Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the official said.

“It is a fact that at times, there are too many procedures for joint ventures between the state and the Centre. I have been a bureaucrat for three decades and aware of the project delays due to redtape and heavy file works”, said retired IAS officer M. G. Devasahayam. The earlier UPA government pitched in JNNURM, a similar initiative aimed at improving civic, transport and energy sectors, but had Chennai’s waste management or traffic scenario or drainage system improved, after spending crores of public money, the retired bureaucrat wondered.

In most urban development projects, the local stakeholders were ignored and consultants were appointed to give a rosy picture, but the project upon completion was a disaster, he added.

“Whenever, major firms like the World Bank was involved in a project, stringent procedures were followed to ensure that there was no misuse of funds. But when more paper works and mandatory meetings added to the existing administrative work, it actually affected implementation of the project and its quality. I had personally experienced this as an engineer of Chennai corporation,” recalled retired chief engineer A. Swaminathan. But in the long run such a huge multi crore project will yield results, but the public will have to wait, he said.