UK Investor Adhum Carter to pump Rs 6500 crores in 20 Indian smart cities

The Indian government’s adept implementation of policies like GST and RERA have lent a lease of life to its ambitious Smart Cities Mission, which aims to establish hundred pro-citizen and self-governing urban dwellings that will be completed by 2020, out of which, the first 20 cities have already been completed. In valuation, projects worth Rs 50,221 crore are underway and projects worth Rs 9,981 crore are done.

The digital component to these smart cities will be predominant, with surveillance systems to monitor and curb crime, e-governance, mobility, e-traffic systems and electronic waste management being the key systems that will drive, sustain and reinforce these city’s economic growth and citizen welfare.

According to senior officials in the ministry of housing and infrastructure development, minimum five years is allocated to a city in order to be complete. The first 20 which were selected in 2016, will be completed by 2021. Since these projects are mammoth in size, timeline delays are to be expected, however, the projects themselves are well on their way towards completion and being fully operational.

Bhubaneswar, Pune, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, Visakhapatnam, Solapur, Davanagere, Indore, New Delhi Municipal Council, Coimbatore, Kakinada, Belagavi, Udaipur, Guwahati, Chennai, Ludhiana, and Bhopal were the winners of the first round of the Smart City Challenge competition 2016.

The total investment proposed in these ninety-nine projects amount to Rs 201, 981 crore and specific area based projects amount to Rs 1,63, 138 crore, according to statistics projected by the government. Smart pan-city initiatives account for the remaining 38, 841 crore of investment. Projects worth Rs 85, 464 crore have been tendered thus far and projects worth Rs 40,000 crore remain in the docket.

For these projects to be successful, establishing city-wise integrated command and control centres is extremely crucial. These centres essentially control and monitor water supply, power supply, traffic movement, health & sanitation, building management, city network, and internet connectivity. So far, 11 cities have operational centers, 29 are currently being constructed while 21 have tenders pending.

Adhum Carter Wolde-Lule is a British investor, financial strategist, and consultant, with a focused real estate background, coupled with a strong expertise in Asia and the Middle East territory. He is a partner in Eyas, which provides a range of corporate services which include discretionary portfolio management, direct and equity investment and managed fund services among other services to its host of clients.

Adhum Carter will be spearheading Eyas’s investment plan to back India’s Smart Cities Mission and capitalize on growth prospects with an investment of approximately six thousand five hundred crores.