Smart Cities miss key awards as projects move at snail’s pace

BENGALURU: Even after five years, Karnataka appears to be lagging in terms of progress and implementation of Smart City projects compared to other cities.
This can be gauged from the list of states and cities which recently won India Smart Cities Award Contest (ISAC)-2020 last week.
Neither the state nor its seven cities (Bengaluru, Belagavi, Davanagere, Hubballi-Dharwad, Mangaluru, Shivamogga, and Tumakuru) selected under the project won awards in the overall performance category.
The only consolation was Bengaluru bagging an award for good management and implementation of solutions for controlling Covid-19 last year and Tumakuru winning for the Digital Library Solution project.
The award was instituted by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs for the first time to commemorate six years of the Smart City Mission.
Uttar Pradesh is the top performer among all states in rankings, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Among cities, Indore and Surat were adjudged joint winners, and Chandigarh was ranked the first among Union territories.
The awards were given on the basis of several parameters, such as social aspects, governance, culture, urban environment, sanitation, economy, environment, water and urban mobility.
For the year of the pandemic, additional parameters of sustainable business model of Integrated Command and Control Centres and innovation in Covid-19 management were considered.
According to urban development department officials, more weightage was given for utilisation of funds, projects executed, those in the tender stage and awarded by the smart cities.
As per the current ranking of Smart Cities based on the performance of civic bodies, Hubbali-Dharwad is the best as it stands at 21st position among all 100 cities in the country, followed by Tumakuru (23) Bengaluru (31), Belagavi (33), Shivamogga(34), Mangaluru (42) and Davanagere (46). “We’ve done well in implementation and fund utilisation. We have won awards on previous occasions and increased our funding,’’ said CW Shakeel Ahmed, managing director, Hubballi Dharwad Smart City Limited.
Almost on all fronts, the progress of Smart City projects is onat a snail’s pace, according to UDD officials.
“The Covid-induced lockdown has affected the pace and fund flow, threatening to delay the projects by nearly 6-12 months,’’ said a project head. Chief minister BS Yediyurappa recently pulled up officials for slow progress of works. He had asked them to ensure better coordination among various civic agencies such as electricity supply companies, corporations and traffic police for expediting the works.
After coming to power, the BJP government had promised to “change the face” of many cities, particularly Bengaluru, which have been facing traffic congestion and problems related to housing, drainage and drinking water. Karnataka has already proposed to include Mysuru, Ballari, Vijayapura and Kalaburagi under the initiative.