Newsroom24x7 Staff

New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have taken the lead in setting up Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) for the implementation of Smart City Plans for the cities that have been selected in the first round for development of smart cities.
Ministry of Urban Development has received confirmation that SPVs have been set up for Jabalpur, Indore and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and Jaipur and Udaipur in Rajasthan. These cities have been among the first batch of 20 winners of Smart City Challenge Competition announced on 29 January this year.

The Urban Development Ministry has also been informed that SPVs for the remaining 15 cities will be formed in the next two weeks. Ministry of Urban Development will release Rs.200 cr for each of the 20 selected cities only after SPVs are set up.

SPVs to be registered under the Companies Act,2013 will have 50:50 equity participation by the states and respective urbanlocal bodies. Private equity is also allowed but its management and control will rest with the Government.

SPVs are required to be set up under Smart City Mission Guidelines to ensure timely and efficient execution of plans with operational freedom. They approve, sanction and execute the projects besides mobilizing resources from different sources.

Madhya Pradesh has set up a 12 member SPV for each of the three cities. For each SPV, the concerned District Collector isbe the Chairman of the Board and the Municipal Commissioner the Executive Director. Representatives of central and state governments, nominee of the Mayor, 2 Independent Directors, representatives of DISCOMs, and Public Health Engineering Department have been inducted as members.

Rajasthan has set up a 11 Member SPV for Jaipur and a 13 Member body for Udaipur. The Principle Secretary (Local Self Government) is the Chairman in both these bodies. Mayor will be the Vice-Chairman and Municipal Commissioner will the Chief Executive Officer till a regular CEO is appointed. Representatives of central and state governments, 2 Independent Directors are also be on the Board.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Urban Development is organizing a day long workshop on on Monday (February 22). Twenty-three cities participating in the ‘Fast Track Competition’ will interact with first batch of 20 smart city winners for ‘peer learning’ and making the winning proposals. One top ranked city from each of the 23 States and UTs that could not win in the first round are participating in this accelerated round of competition. Now 23 cities have to submit their revised proposals to the Ministry of Urban Development by April 15 this year.