Context:
Recently, the Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs and Petroleum & Natural Gas launched the CITIIS 2.0 Challenge.
Relevance:
GS III: Infrastructure
Dimensions of the Article:
- About CITIIS Program
- CITIIS 2.0 Program
- What is the Smart Cities Mission?
About CITIIS Program:
- The CITIIS (Cities Investments to Innovate Integrate and Sustain) Challenge was launched in partnership with French Development Agency (AFD), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the European Union (EU), and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).
- It aimed to extend a loan of EUR 100 million for the implementation of innovative projects selected through an All-India Challenge in sectors like sustainable mobility, public open spaces, urban governance & ICT, and social and organizational innovation in low-income settlements.
- The program was launched on July 9, 2018, and completed activities such as preparatory workshops, proposal submission by cities, evaluation of proposals, and selection of 12 projects in a record time.
- Currently, the 12 projects are being implemented in cities like Agartala, Amaravati, Amritsar, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Dehradun, Hubbali-Dharwad, Kochi, Puducherry, Surat, Ujjain, and Visakhapatnam.
CITIIS 2.0 Program:
- The program aims to support selected projects that promote circular economy, integrated waste management at the city level, climate-oriented reform actions at the state level, and institutional strengthening and knowledge dissemination at the national level.
Duration and Partnerships:
- The program will span over four years, from 2023 to 2027.
- It is conceived and will be implemented in partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the European Union (EU), and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).
Funding:
- The funding for CITIIS 2.0 includes a loan of ₹1,760 crore split equally between AFD and KfW.
- Additionally, there is a technical assistance grant of ₹106 crore from the European Union.
Components of CITIIS 2.0:
CITIIS 2.0 comprises three major components:
- Financial and technical support for developing projects focused on building climate resilience, adaptation, and mitigation in up to 18 smart cities.
- Interventions at the central, state, and city levels to further climate governance.
- Promoting circular economy with a focus on integrated waste management at the city level.
What is the Smart Cities Mission?
- The Smart Cities Mission is an initiative of the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 25, 2015.
- Cities across the country were asked to submit proposals for projects to improve municipal services and to make their jurisdictions more liveable.
- Between January 2016 and June 2018 (when the last city, Shillong, was chosen), the Ministry selected 100 cities for the Mission over five rounds.
- The projects were supposed to be completed within five years of the selection of the city, but in 2021 the Ministry changed the deadline for all cities to June 2023, which was earlier the deadline for Shillong alone.
What kinds of projects were proposed?
- After the Ministry gave broad guidelines to the participating cities, the project proposals ranged from making certain stretches of roads more accessible and pedestrian-friendly to more capital-intensive ones like laying water pipelines and constructing sewage treatment plants.
- All 100 cities have also constructed Integrated Command and Control Centres to monitor all security, emergency and civic services.
- During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, these centres were converted into emergency response units by many of the cities.
