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

Implementation of Projects and Monitoring
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procurement of excess RFID tags more than the requirement resulted in
avoidable expenditure of ₹55.91 lakh.
Further, State Government replied (April 2025) that the Hubballi-Dharwad
Municipal Corporation (HDMC) will utilize the RFID tags as and when
necessary. This reply confirms that the additional 87,866 RFID tags were not
immediately required, leading to wasteful expenditure due to the purchase of
more than requirement.
4.7.3.3 Bengaluru Smart City
BenSCL appointed (March 2021) MSI for implementation of ICCC project
under which ICT based SWM was one of the major components. However,
BenSCL decided (April 2022) to descope the ICT based SWM components
from the ICCC project as the State Government formed (May 2021) Bengaluru
Solid Waste Management Limited (BSWML) to execute SWM projects. Till
the decision of descoping SWM component was taken, the MSI had already
completed preparation of project inception report and submitted functional and
software requirement specifications as stipulated in the Service Level
Agreement. The MSI was paid (January 2022) an amount of ₹1.85 crore for the
work carried out in relation to SWM component in the ICCC project. The
entrustment of SWM component to the MSI and payment of ₹1.85 crore could
have been avoided as the decision to establish the Company was taken by
BBMP in January 2021 and Government order for formation of BSWML was
issued (5 March 2021) before the issue of work order of ICCC.
The State Government replied (April 2025) that the project has now been
completed, and the final Bill of Quantities (BoQ) has amounted to ₹79.75 crore,
after excluding the Solid Waste Management (SWM) and other ICCC
components worth ₹25.01 crore.
However, the reply indicates that the proper due diligence was not exercised in
assigning the SWM activities to BSWML. Moreover, the reply does not clarify
whether the excess payment made has been recovered or adjusted from the
agency.
4.7.4 Sub-optimal functioning of ICCC due to absence of interdepartmental
coordination
One of the key objectives of ICCC project in HDSCL was to establish a
collaborative framework where inputs from HDMC and different functional
departments such as transport, water, fire, police, e-governance etc., can be
assimilated and analysed on a single platform to generate aggregated city level
information. Audit observed that the above objectives were not achieved due
to lack of inter-departmental coordination as explained below:
• Integration of City Surveillance System implemented by the Police and
Traffic department was yet to be carried out despite several
correspondences made with the police department.
• Similarly, City Surveillance System and Intelligent Transport
Management System implemented by the Hubballi-Dharwad Bus Rapid
Transport System (HDBRTS) could not be integrated with ICCC due to