CAG Report No. 11 of 2025 — Implementation of Smart City Mission, Government of Karnataka

Planning
9
Table 2.2: Achievement of goals prescribed in the SCPs
Total
number of
goals in
SCP
Number of goals
Achieved Partially
Achieved
Not Achieved
135 68 43 24
Source: Information derived from the data furnished by smart cities
City wise details of goals are indicated in Appendix 2.1. As observed above,
the smart cities could not achieve the planned goals even after nine years of
implementing the Mission.
The State Government stated that interventions from multiple departments were
required in implementation of the scheme and it will be impractical to expect
achievement of all these long-term goals under a single mission.
The deficiencies observed in the planning process of the Mission are detailed in
subsequent paragraphs:
2.2.1 Modification of Smart City Proposal
Though the Mission guidelines did not have any provision for modification of
SCP, the MoHUA allowed (September 2018) a one-time change in SCP to
provide some flexibility in implementing the Mission. To ensure that the change
in SCP would not lead to vitiation of the challenge process and its spirit,
MoHUA issued (January 2019) advisory elaborating the guidelines for change
in SCP. Accordingly, the cities revised their list of projects with the approval of
HPSC. However, MoHUA was yet (June 2024) to approve these changes
formally. Audit observed that the modification of SCP had an adverse impact
on the implementation of the Mission as detailed below:
2.2.1.1 Dropping of projects from the approved SCP
As per the advisory, dropping of projects from SCP, was permissible only in
exigent circumstances and the cities were to give clear reasoning for not
undertaking the work. On scrutiny of records, Audit observed that SPVs
dropped seven to 48 per cent of the projects outlined in the SCP. The
deletion/dropping of projects from SCP had also been done multiple times in
violation of the advisory. Details of dropped projects are indicated in Table 2.3.
Table 2.3: Details of dropped projects
Smart City Projects as per SCP Deleted projects Percentage
As
per
SCP
Added
subsequently
Total Outlay
(₹ in crore)
Number Outlay
(₹ in crore)
Number Outlay
(₹ in crore)
Belagavi 68 39 107 4,097.37 41 1,335.21 38 32.59
Bengaluru 18 19 37 2,665.01 04 169.92 11 6.38
Davanagere 19 40 59 1,775.09 04 838.82 7 47.26
Hubballi-
Dharwad
25 76 101 3,031.76 33 1,464.00 33 48.29
Mangaluru 66 10 76 2,129.76 24 675.02 32 31.69
Shivamogga 55 25 80 1,637.03 36 474.42 45 28.98
Tumakuru 43 41 84 2,725.28 18 798.90 21 29.31
Total 294 250 544 18,061.30 160 5,756.29 30 32
Source: Information furnished by KUIDFC/ smart cities