States repurpose Smart City SPVs post-mission
New Delhi: After the Centre concluded its 10-year-old
Smart Cities Mission
in March, state governments are working to maintain the relevance of the special purpose vehicles (SPVs) that were established for the flagship programme.
With no funding from the Centre, the SPVs are now functioning as consultancy platforms for municipal corporations in the states and implementing big-ticket
urban development projects
. However, the biggest task before the state governments is to make the SPVs self-sustainable in the long run.
"With the
Smart City Mission
wrapped up, our top priority is to make SPV s" Surat's municipal commissioner, Shalini Agarwal, told ET. "The projects being implemented by the SPV were transferred to the different departments and all had an in-built operation and maintenance (O&M) clause in tender."
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Surat was one of the first smart cities to complete all projects under the mission. However, the municipal corporation decided against diluting the SPV.
"The integrated command and control centre (ICCC), which is the nerve centre of Surat's urban governance, is being run by the SPV," said Agarwal, adding that the penalties the state imposes-such as those for stray cattle, traffic challans, throwing garbage on the road-all go to the SPV.
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"Since capacity and expertise has been built over the years in the SPV, it is now providing
consultancy services
to other corporations. The consultancy fee collected also goes towards sustaining SPV operations," she said.
The
Agartala Smart City SPV
is now implementing large infrastructure projects and providing consultancy services to keep itself afloat.
"Our SPV is self-sustaining, as for the last two years we have been implementing big infrastructure projects," said SK Yadav, CEO of Agartala Smart City. "We levy a 3% consultancy charge for all projects and this sustains our SPV."
Yadav said because of the Smart City Mission, the SPV has become proficient in handling big projects. "SPV has a number of consultants in its fold who provide multi-disciplinary expertise. We have retained our staff," said Yadav.
The Agartala SPV is implementing ADB- and AFD-funded projects.
Chennai and Agra Smart Cities are also following a similar pattern. Senior officials told ET that the SPVs were always lean in terms of administrative structure and have maintained this.
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