[Urbanstudy] Smart City scheme: It will be a competition for funds

[Vinay Baindur]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/it-will-be-a-competition-for-funds/article6843339.ece

Smart City scheme: It will be a competition for funds

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT


[image: A view of Nizamabad. File photo]
The Hindu
A view of Nizamabad. File photo
TOPICS
politics <http://www.thehindu.com/tag/politics/1349/>government
<http://www.thehindu.com/tag/government/1385/>

Cities that have a vision and development strategy, have made progress
under the Swachh Bharat Mission, make timely salary payment to municipal
staff and have a mechanism to redress grievances and an e-newsletter will
be eligible to take part in the Smart City Challenge, which will allow them
to compete for funds under the ‘Smart City’ scheme.

At the end of a two-day consultation hosted by the Ministry of Urban
Development, the States and other stakeholders to identify the parameters
for choosing the cities that can compete, it was suggested that percentage
points be allocated for further ranking of cities. The Ministry has
clarified that cities will have to compete for the funds allocated under
the scheme.
*States’ suggestions*

“States have suggested certain parameters that include self-financing
ability, which will have a 25 per cent weightage in the selection criteria,
institutional systems and capacities (25%), existing service levels and
committed plan of action for three years (25%), track record in
implementing reforms (15%) and quality of vision document (10%),” said an
official of the Ministry.

The States have suggested two sets of reforms for small and metropolitan
cities. These include land monetisation, increased FAR norms with
transparent policies, quick progress towards e-governance and online
service delivery, integrated GIS-based Master Plans including for
sanitation, mobility, land use, digital connectivity, disaster risk
management and climate change. Policy reforms, fixed tenures for Mayors and
municipal officials, improving revenues through 100 per cent collection of
taxes and user charges, minimum educational qualifications for corporators
and their capacity-building, economic master planning for cities before
physical master plans, creation of municipal cadre and credit rating have
also been identified.

“The States have suggested that in addition to the PPP model, they should
be given the option of EPC [Engineering Procurement Contract] and user
fee-based concessions to promote private sector participation. They want to
impose impact fee on organisations that benefit from improved
infrastructure, government support for making projects viable for private
investors, unbundling of services to make projects investment-worthy and
creation of a low-cost pooled fund with the support of the Asian
Development Bank, the World Bank, pension funds and sovereign funds etc.,”
said the official.

Keywords: Urban Development ministry
<http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/it-will-be-a-competition-for-funds/article6843339.ece#>
, smart city
<http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/it-will-be-a-competition-for-funds/article6843339.ece#>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup_mail.sarai.net/attachments/20150201/f3fab389/attachment.html>