Hardeep Singh Puri, the Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, announced on Monday that all 100 smart cities will have integrated command and control centres (ICCCs). He said that 80 of these cities now have these centres, with the remaining 20 set to open by August 15.

"Work on practically all Government-funded Smart City Mission projects has begun, and projects under SCM will be completed by next year." "We have Integrated Command and Control Centres in 80 Smart Cities, and the remaining 20 will be operational by August 15th this year," the minister said at the three-day 'Smart Cities, Smart Urbanisation' conference in Surat on Monday.

These operational ICCCs served as COVID-19 management war rooms, assisting towns in battling the pandemic through information dissemination, improved communication, predictive analysis, and better management, as well as other smart infrastructure established as part of the mission.

Despite COVID disruptions, Puri said that the Smart City Mission initiatives are the most efficient among government programmes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the mission on June 25, 2015. Through different urban development projects, the SCM aspires to address the expectations of 40 percent of India's population who live in cities. So far, 7,905 projects totaling Rs 1,93,143 crore (94 percent by value) have been tendered, while work orders for 7,692 projects costing roughly Rs 1,80,508 crore have been issued (88 per cent by value). As of April 10, 3,830 projects totaling Rs 60,919 crore (or 33% of the total value) had been completed and are functioning.

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