Tamil Nadu has asked the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs to pick 15 of its cities for Smart City 2.0, which is likely to kick off by 2025 and under which 100 cities are chosen through a special purpose vehicle for civic, mobility and infrastructure development. On Monday, municipal administration minister K N Nehru and DMK parliamentary party leader Kanimozhi presented the demand to Union minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
At the inception of the Smart City programme in 2015, Tamil Nadu was allotted 12 cities including Chennai the second highest after Uttar Pradesh’s 13 cities. The state spent about 98% of the allocated 18,000 crore under the scheme whose deadline has been extended till March 31, 2025.This time, MAWS (municipal administration and water supply department) secretary D Karthikeyan said top-tier cities including Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai will get a focus. “We will also push for fast-growing cities. The kind of projects will be decided after assessments and meeting Union govt parameters.”
A city is chosen based on successful model projects, each of which must include 10% of energy requirements coming from solar, wastewater recycling, intelligent traffic management, citizen safety, and smart digital applications for citizen use. Implementing Swachh Bharat scheme will hold 10 points, operation of online grievance redressal system 5 points, penalties for delay in service delivery 5 points, and increase in total collection of internally generated revenue 10 points, among other criteria.
In Chennai, of the 1,000 crore allotted, 600 crore was spent in T Nagar, with only pedestrian plaza being usable. Residents and experts said development must be universal and focus on growing added areas such as OMR. Others said focus this time should be more on mobility. “They should plan for a Bus Rapid Transport System and non-motorised transport as well,” said K P Subramanian, former urban engineering professor of Anna University.
Activists want the smart city corruption report submitted by the PWC David committee released .
“Why has the govt not released it for two years now? Ministers and officials know corruption exists, and the public must know this. The new scheme will be merely a money-minting exercise,” said Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of Arappor Iyakkam.
