Smart Cities Mission

National Smart Cities Mission is an urban renewal and retrofitting program by the Government of India with the mission to develop smart cities across the country, making them citizen friendly and sustainable. The Union Ministry of Urban Development is responsible for implementing the mission in collaboration with the state governments of the respective cities. The mission was planned to include 100 cities, with the deadline for completion of the projects set between 2019 and 2023. , 7202 out of total 8018 tendered projects have been completed, utilizing ₹144,530 crores out of total tendered amount of ₹164,163 crore.

Description
Smart Cities Mission envisions developing areas within selected cities in the country as model areas based on an area development plan, which is expected to have a rub-off effect on other parts of the city and nearby cities and towns. Cities will be selected based on the Smart Cities challenge, where cities will compete in a countrywide competition to obtain the benefits from this mission. It is a five-year program in which financial aid will be given by the central government to the cities. The Ministry of Urban Development used a competition-based method as a means for selecting cities for funding. The state governments were asked to nominate potential cities with the overall count across India limited to 100. A hundred cities have been selected so far to be upgraded as part of the Smart Cities Mission. Each city will create a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) headed by a CEO to implement the projects under mission.

History
The mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 June 2015. In the 2015 Union budget of India, inr 20200000000 was allocated for the smart cities mission. The mission was further allocated inr 32150000000 in the 2016, inr 40000000000 in 2017, inr 61690000000 in 2018, inr 64500000000 in 2019, inr 61360000000 in 2020 and inr 61180000000 in the 2021. The project was extended and was allocated inr 141000000000 in the 2023 Union budget of India and a further inr 160000000000 in the 2023 Union budget of India. , a total of 7960 projects worth inr 1714320000000 crore have been tendered.

List of Cities
In 2015, there were 98 cities nominated by the states for the smart cities challenge, based on state level competition. A hundred cities were supposed to be nominated but Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh did not use one slot each. All the participating cities from West Bengal, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai from Maharashtra withdrew the nominations.

Selected cities
On 28 January 2016, a batch of 20 cities known as "Lighthouse cities" were selected in the first round of the All India City Challenge competition for which an assistance of inr 2000000000 each during the first year followed by inr 1000000000 per year during the next three years was announced. 13 cities were added as an extension in May 2016. 27 cities were added in September 2016, 30 in June 2017, nine in January 2018 and one city in June 2018.