The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has recently announced that the deadline for its Smart Cities Mission has been extended from June of this year to June 2024. This extension will allow all 100 smart cities, including Belagavi Smart City Ltd., to not only complete their projects but also document and share their learnings from the mission. According to sources from the ministry, this decision was made to ensure that all cities have ample time to achieve their goals and make the most of this opportunity.
The Smart Cities Mission was launched in 2015, and it selected 100 cities through a competitive process from January 2016 to June 2018. These cities were given five years from their selection date to complete the projects they had proposed. However, in 2021, the ministry decided to extend the deadline for all 100 cities until the end of June 2023. This was done to provide additional time for the cities to complete their projects and ensure that they are successful in achieving their objectives.
Despite this, many works under the Smart City scheme in Belagavi remain incomplete. For example, the first Smart Road, Mandoli Road, is still unfinished, although it may appear to be complete on paper. The same is true for the multi-purpose business center in Kalamandir and various works at the Vaccine Depot. The work on the Vaccine Depot has now been stopped, but the business center in the Kalamandir premises will be delayed.
A total of 930 crore rupees have been sanctioned to Belagavi from the central and state governments for the Smart City scheme, of which 804 crore has already been spent.
103 works have been undertaken and more than 75 of them have been completed. The remaining work must be completed before the deadline. The works under the Smart City scheme are being carried out on the principle of the build, use and transfer model, meaning that works can still be completed after June 30, but with the funds of the Smart City scheme.