Even before the ambitious smart city project of urban development ministry sees the light of the day, a tug of war has started between the ministry and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

BIS is the nodal government agency for formulating guidelines for various schemes. So far, the BIS has organised six meetings for formulating the smart city guidelines, but, unioin development ministry has given it a miss.

The union development ministry is of the view that it has prepared its brief guidelines to roll the smart city plan and it has not asked BIS for any assistance. Interference of BIS at this juncture is unwanted, said a ministry source.

BIS is the nodal standardisation agency of the government, which formulates, issues and implements standards. "Developing smart cities is a nationwide project. We started formulating guidelines because not all states will be able to come up with their own manual. BIS recommendations provide a standard which the states can roll," said an officer at BIS.

Taking cue from the guidelines formulated by the ministry, BIS in its 10 point guideline covers area including, Terminology and Integrated Approach; Administration, Management and Governance, Physical Infrastructure, Institutional Infrastructure, Social Infrastructure, Economic Infrastructure, Environmental Infrastructure, ICT, Financing Smart Cities, Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanism.