Centre issues fresh advisory to states on Smart Cities Mission

Hindustan Times

a day ago

New Delhi: The union government has issued an advisory to states to ensure that special project vehicles (SPVs) and Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs) are operational in all 100 cities under the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) and urging them to develop policies so that they can charge a fee as a consultant agency and for services delivered by them.
In the advisory, the centre has asked states and union territories to integrate SPVs and ICCCs into their long-term governance frameworks, ensuring that the 'gains made under the Mission continue to benefit urban India'.
'Looking ahead, the advisory underscores the Government of India's firm view that the institutional and technical capacity built within the SPVs should be repurposed to meet emerging urban challenges. To support this transition, the advisory articulates a clear vision for repurposing SPVs as agile, multi-functional institutions aligned with evolving city and state-level priorities,' a government release said.
The advisory said the SPVs can support cities in managing cyber hygiene, analytics, and data systems and ICCCs can be leveraged as city operating systems and state analytical hubs, with operational control preferably retained by the urban development departments. Further, the advisory said that SPVs are positioned to drive city-level economic development by supporting project structuring, procurement, and stakeholder coordination across tiers of government.
While the success of the ₹48,000 crore mission remains mixed with varied rates of success, HT in May had reported that such an advisory was in the works as the mission came to an end in March.
According to the government, as of March 2025, over 93% of the 8,000+ projects under SCM have been completed, with the Centre having disbursed nearly 99.44% of the mission's total budget of ₹48,000 crore.