Having extended the Smart Cities Mission deadline for a third time, till March 31, 2025, the Centre last week told the states and UTs that it will disburse the remaining funds till September 30 on a “first come first serve basis”, The Indian Express has learnt. Of the 100 cities under the Mission, 26 are yet to receive 100% share of the central funding as work on projects is still ongoing, according to Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry. The Mission was to end on June 30, but on June 29 the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) wrote to all states and UTs informing them that the Mission will extend till March 31, 2025 without any additional cost. The states and UTs were told the remaining central funds would be released till September 30, or earlier, on a first come first serve basis, and were asked to expedite their proposals for fund release. The Smart Cities are required to get projects approved and secure the matching funds from states before they are given central share of funding. Of total central share of Rs 48,000 crore, Rs 46,585 crore had been released, with 74 cities getting 100% of their Government of India contributions, a ministry statement on Wednesday said. Cities yet to receive 100% of the central funds include eight in UTs — Diu, Jammu, Kavaratti, Panaji, Port Blair, Puducherry, Silvassa, and Srinagar — and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area that is also under the central government. Other cities yet to get entire GoI funding are Amritsar and Jalandhar in Punjab; Atal Nagar, Bilaspur and Raipur in Chhattisgarh; Biharsharif, Muzaffarpur and Patna in Bihar; Greater Warangal and Karimnagar in Telangana; Dahod (Gujarat); Imphal (Manipur); Karnal (Haryana); Mangaluru (Karnataka); Namchi (Sikkim); Nashik (Maharashtra); and Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh). As on Wednesday, the ministry said the 100 cities had completed 7,188 projects worth Rs 1.44 lakh crore. The remaining 830 projects worth Rs 19,926 crore were “in advanced stages of completion”. “The Mission has been getting multiple requests from some States/city government representatives, to grant some more time to complete the balance 10% projects. These balance ongoing projects are in advanced stage of implementation,” the ministry said.
