Smart City’s user fee a challenge

To make the projects viable, be they retrofit development or pan city improvement, the civic administration has to look for multiple resource mobilisation measures including user charges, beneficiary charges and loans.

If the new civic administration is planning to have large-scale private investments using the initial outlay of Rs 1,000 crore from the Union government, it will be forced to impose user fees for the basic services including drinking water, drain maintenance and sanitation.

With the role of urban local bodies continues to be ambiguous in implementing Smart City programme, conceptualising and implementing feasible projects in participation with various stakeholders will be a real challenge for the new council, it has been observed. A special wing of the civic administration is in the process of preparing project proposals for Smart City through stakeholder consultation.

New mayor Soumini Jain, while briefing media on the Smart City project, said the Union government's guidelines on implementing projects including the user fee-based services are policy matters. 'Such matters will be finalised after discussions in the council and getting its approval," she said.

Kochi has already been selected in the initial list of 100 Smart Cities but in the Challenge Round, it has to submit competitive project documents by mid-December based on which the city would be included in the first 20 cities list.