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Like many of the current government’s flagship programmes, the Smart Cities" programme used just 1.8% of the funds released to it, stated a Parliamentary standing committee report. Thats not all. According to a report, ‘India's Smart Cities Mission: Smart for Whom? Cities for Whom?’, recently released by Housing and Land Rights Network in Delhi, only 8% of the 3,008 total identified projects under the Mission has been completed, despite the deadline 2020 being just two years away.

Three years after its launch on June 25, 2015, reports reveal that the Smart Cities Mission is progressing at a slow pace. Many projects were still in the preparatory phase of implementation, with cities still developing detailed project reports (DPR) and inviting tenders. In March 2018, of the identified projects, 1,908 projects (over 69%) were still preparing their DPR.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, ₹2,03,979 crore is being spent under the Smart Cities Mission on only 99.5 million people, which accounts for 22% of India’s urban population and less than 8% of India’s total population.

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