Smart Cities Mission

Topic: Human Settlements and Urbanisation in India · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Human Settlements"

Meaning

The Smart Cities Mission (SCM) was a Union mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). It was launched on 25 June 2015 and ran in 100 cities. Its aim was to give these cities core infrastructure, a clean and sustainable environment and a decent quality of life. It did this through "smart solutions" and through model areas that other places could copy [2]. The mission formally closed on 31 March 2025 [6].

It matters for two reasons. First, it was India's main test of technology-led urban planning. Second, it raised a lasting debate: should cities be improved in small pockets run by companies, or across the whole city by elected councils?

Explanation

Why it came, and what it aimed to do

• Background: India's towns grew without planning.
• Ancient towns grew as religious or political centres, medieval towns as forts and capitals, and colonial towns as ports, administrative centres and hill stations.

• Most modern towns grew without a plan. This led to too little water and sewerage, slums, traffic jams and flooding.

• From JNNURM to separate missions.

• JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission) ran from 2005 to 2014.

• In 2015 it was replaced by several separate missions: Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT, PMAY-Urban and HRIDAY.

• Three goals of SCM:

• core infrastructure (basic services such as water, power, roads and sanitation)
• a clean and sustainable environment

• a decent quality of life

• "Smart solutions" use technology and data to:

• make cities safer from disasters
• use less water and energy

• make services cheaper

• "Lighthouse" approach:

• Each city first develops a small, compact area as a working model.
• PIB calls these areas "replicable models for other parts of the city". Citizens helped choose them [2].

How cities were chosen and how projects were run

• Challenge competition (a contest where cities send in plans and the best plans win central money):
• 100 cities were chosen in rounds between 2016 and 2018.

• PIB calls this competitive federalism, because states and cities compete for central funds [2].

• Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV):

• Each city set up a company under the Companies Act to plan and carry out its projects.

• The state and the city own it together. It works separately from the elected municipal council [2].

• Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC):

• This is a city "control room" that collects live data on traffic, water, waste and CCTV.
• All 100 smart cities had working ICCCs by November 2024 [2].
• During COVID-19, the ICCCs worked as COVID war rooms [2].

Types of projects

Type	Meaning	Example
Area-Based Development (ABD)	Work in one marked-out part of the city	Market redevelopment, waterfronts
– Retrofitting	Upgrade an area that is already built up, without pulling it down	Adding ducts, footpaths and smart meters to an old area
– Redevelopment	Pull down and rebuild an old, run-down area at higher density	Rebuilding old markets
– Greenfield	Build a new area on empty land	New township on the edge of a city
Pan-city projects	Technology solutions for the whole city, mostly ICT (information and communication technology)	Smart traffic signals, CCTV, e-governance

Results and criticism

• Projects:
• 7,380 of 8,075 projects were completed (91%), worth ₹1,47,704 crore, as of December 2024 [2].

• The total portfolio was about 8,000 projects worth about ₹1,65,000 crore [3].

• Central budget (December 2024): ₹48,000 crore was allocated, ₹46,419 crore was released and ₹44,545 crore was used by cities [3].

• Outputs (November 2024) [2]:
• over 84,000 CCTV cameras
• 1,740 km of smart roads and 713 km of cycle tracks
• 9,433 smart classrooms

• 17,026 km of water pipelines monitored through SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition: remote sensors that track water flow and leaks). This cuts non-revenue water, which is water that is lost or never billed.

• Heritage and housing: 55 cities conserved 484 heritage monuments, and 23 cities built 35,000 affordable housing units [3].

• Private money was low: only 199 projects worth about ₹9,200 crore were run as PPP (public–private partnership) [3].
• Closure:
• The deadline was extended to March 2025 [5], and the mission closed on 31 March 2025.

• MoHUA then advised states to repurpose (re-use) the SPVs for new work [6].

• Main criticisms:

• Enclave bias: ABD areas cover only a small part of each city, so the benefits stay in small pockets.
• Bypasses local democracy: SPVs are company boards, not elected councils. This weakens the 74th Constitutional Amendment (1992), which made municipalities the elected third tier of government and gave them 18 functions in the Twelfth Schedule.
• Slow spending: the mission was meant to end in 2020 but was extended many times, finally to 2025.
• Technology over basics: CCTV and dashboards were sometimes chosen over water, drains and housing.

Where it occurs

• Where: 100 cities across India, chosen through a challenge competition in rounds between 2016 and 2018.
• Who runs it: the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). In each city, projects were carried out by an SPV owned jointly by the state and the city [2].
• When: launched by the Prime Minister on 25 June 2015 [2]. Extended to March 2025 [5]. Formally closed on 31 March 2025.
• Within each city:
• ABD projects were limited to one chosen area.

• Pan-city ICT projects, such as the ICCC, covered the whole city.

• NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Human Settlements" discusses the mission in a box.

Don't confuse with

• AMRUT: launched on the same day (25 June 2015) [4], but it is a centrally sponsored scheme for 500 cities (now 485). It focuses on whole-city water, sewerage, drains and parks, and it works through ULBs (Urban Local Bodies) and State Annual Action Plans, not SPVs. SCM covered 100 cities and focused on model areas and ICT.
• JNNURM (2005–14): the earlier urban mission. It gave large grants tied to reforms, such as repealing urban land-ceiling laws. SCM and the other 2015 missions replaced it.
• HRIDAY (2015): revives the heritage areas of selected cities such as Varanasi, Amritsar and Ajmer. It is not a smart-city scheme. (PRASHAD improves facilities at pilgrimage sites.)
• 74th Amendment vs 73rd Amendment: the 74th (1992) deals with urban local bodies, which SPVs were accused of bypassing. The 73rd deals with Panchayats.

Prelims Hooks

• SCM and AMRUT were both launched on 25 June 2015. PMAY-Urban also started in June 2015 [2][4].
• City selection used a challenge competition, which PIB calls competitive federalism [2].
• Three ABD types: retrofitting (upgrade what exists), redevelopment (pull down and rebuild), greenfield (build on empty land). Pan-city projects are ICT solutions for the whole city.
• Projects were carried out by a Special Purpose Vehicle (a company under the Companies Act), not the elected municipal council [2].
• All 100 smart cities have an ICCC, and ICCCs worked as COVID war rooms [2].
• SCM's central budget was ₹48,000 crore, of which ₹46,419 crore was released (December 2024) [3]. The mission closed on 31 March 2025, after which MoHUA advised repurposing the SPVs [6].

Mains Points

• Enclaves vs the whole city (GS-I):
• SCM completed 91% of its 8,075 projects (December 2024) [2], but much of the work was in small ABD areas.
• AMRUT built whole-city water and sewer networks (2.03 crore tap connections by June 2025) [4].

• Lesson: basic services across the whole city do more for balanced urbanisation than showpiece pockets.

• Governance and the 74th Amendment (GS-II link):

• SPVs and centrally designed missions sit uneasily with elected ULBs.

• Possible fixes:

  • give planning power and money to elected councils
  • re-use SPVs as technical arms of the ULB [6]
  • help ULBs raise more of their own revenue, for example through municipal bonds (13 ULBs raised ₹4,984 crore) [4]

• Low private money and technology bias (GS-III):

• Only 199 PPP projects worth about ₹9,200 crore came in [3], so the mission depended mostly on public funds.
• Tools such as SCADA on 17,026 km of pipelines show that technology helps most when it serves basic services like water [2].
• CCTV and dashboards alone do not fix drains, flooding or housing.

Related concepts

• AMRUT
• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana

Read more

• Urban policy: Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT and housing