Mumbai omitted from smart cities list

Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, has not found a place in the first list of 20 beneficiary cities for the Centre’s “smart city” project. While other metropolitan cities like New Delhi and Chennai have been selected for the project, Mumbai’s name is missing from the list.

To participate in the smart city project, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had sent a proposal, which involves area-based development of Lower Parel, to the Centre. However, taking strong objection to it, the ruling Shiv Sena asked that certain conditions be added to the proposal and accordingly they were incorporated before sending it to the Centre.

But while even several small cities, including Pune and Solapur from Maharashtra, were handpicked by the Centre for the project, Mumbai remains absent.

Additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas said, “As and when Centre gives us a response, we will study it to find the reasons behind why they have spurned the city’s bid for the smart city project. This is the first list of cities announced by the Centre.”

However, according to the civic officials, the conditions put up by Shiv Sena might have played a big role in the Centre’s decision to reject Mumbai’s bid in the first list. After initially opposing the proposal, Shiv Sena approved it only after adding 14 provisions to it. Some of them were that there should not be any private equity, 85 per cent jobs should be reserved for sons of the soil, the city mayor should head the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), over 50 per cent of members representation in the SPV be decided by the BMC house and SPV should not impose any kind of cess or tax.

The rules for smart city project are uniform for all cities. So the additions to BMC proposal might have contributed to the city’s name being omitted, said a civic official on the condition of anonymity.