Under the Smart city plan the Central Govt is to allocate Rs.200 crore for each city and this year being the first year and to give a boost to begin the process the Govt has already allocated Rs.392 crores for Belagavi Smart city Ltd which is allocation of Two years.
The Special Purpose vehicle, Belagavi Smart city Ltd formed for this has seen such a credit to its bank account but the SPV is yet to appoint a project management consultant and no meetings of the SPV has been held not even one. Hence all that money currently will lie in the account unutilised.
SPV will plan, apprise, approve, release funds, implement, operate and evaluate the smart city development projects.
Funds provided by the central government under the Smart Cities Mission to the SPV will be in the form of tied grant and kept in a separate grant fund.
Currently the Corporation Commissioner is the CEO of the SPV who has been transferred.
The District In Charge Minister and the Deputy Commissioner need to put their act together immediately and commence the works as per the proposed plan approved by the Central Govt. The authorities should make the plans known to the public so that the citizens can monitor the progress.
Its good to hear that the funds have been made available and I applaud the commisioners office for slowing down, PLANNING, before running out to empty the account. Its just that planning cannot go on forever – a milestone of plans and activities should be published, -along with spending budget for each activity. Let’s implement some prudent and proven project management skills. I have trust that the stakeholders in charge are capable of doing the right thing and being transparent.