ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Smart City Mission is setting a new paradigm in Indian urban development, however, instead of relying on existing institutional mechanism present in local governance, it seeks to establish a parallel framework for implementation. This comes at a cost to existing local government framework in terms of resources diverted away from them, such as municipal corporation at Chandigarh. Additionally, the perceived problem with local governance has been lack of capacity and capability to carry out its mandate. Infrastructure development, such as those projects in Chandigarh aiming at extensive technology led solutions, though a dire requirement, will eventually suffer operational and maintenance issues if this capacity development is not met. It is also apparent that smart city mission documentation as well as the Chandigarh city proposal, depends on technology led solutions as a miracle cure-all. It is also possible that the public opinion may perceive most pending projects in Chandigarh, being implemented under the mission, as being non-essential and not priority.
