India is a developing country, so it is not fair to compare it with developed nations like the US, the UK, Canada, and others at this stage. The Indian government is upgrading its cities and making them smart. Perhaps the term ‘smart city’ is new to you. Don’t worry, as we are going to shed light on the definition of a smart city and discuss the Indian city of Nagpur, which is one of the cities announced by the Indian government to be converted into a smart city.
What is a Smart City?
Maybe the word smart in the name has given you some sort of idea of a smart city where everything, particularly public departments, uses technology to manage public works and provide citizen services. Let’s talk about the definition that says that a smart city is an urban area that uses Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, and other latest technology to manage assets, resources, and services efficiently and improve the quality of life for the residents.
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In a smart city, citizens are provided with data-driven solutions in place of brick-mortar solutions to enhance sustainability, mobility, governance, and safety to create a connected and responsive environment. Let’s shift our focus back to our topic of smart city Nagpur, which is on the road to development, as there are a lot of changes happening there. The Nagpur Smart City initiative is all about significant progress in digital infrastructure, area-based development, and fulfilling promises that have been facing delays over the years.
Progress of Projects: What has been Achieved So Far?
If you live in Nagpur or any of the surrounding cities, you know that this city is recognized as one of the top-performing smart Indian cities. Maybe there are many projects where the deadlines have been shifted several times; however, there are still some projects that have been completed well within the promised deadline.
- Smart and Safe City Project
With the announcement of the smart city project in Nagpur in 2016, the priority was to safeguard the city from criminal activities and minimizing traffic violations by installing more than 3,600 CCTV cameras across 700 locations with an integrated command and control center, which has been made functional.
Also, there was a target to make all public transport buses GPS-enabled, which too has also been completed to a great extent. Both of these projects were part of the initially-announced INR 524-crore budget, and a significant part of both projects got completed.
- Area-Based Development
With the announcement of the Nagpur smart city project, the government’s focus shifted to transforming 1,743 acres of land in East Nagpur (consisting of Bharatwada, Bhandewadi, Pardi, and Punapar). Since the announcement, there has been substantial infrastructure upgrades in these areas in terms of road widening and utility services.
- Energy Management
As you know, normal lights were installed on streets, and the smart city project brought energy management, and about 1,36,000 LED lights have been installed across 10 zones of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). This step towards energy conservation will surely save a lot of energy.
- Digital Connectivity
The announcement opened the door to digitalization of all the public departments of Nagpur city, and that’s why thousands of kilometres of fibre optic networks have been installed to support e-governance and public Wi-Fi hotspots. With the availability of public hotspots, online entertainment activities such as casino gaming becomes easier than ever, and you can gamble at an online casino for Malaysians where online casinos are legal to gamble.
Promises Made but Still not near Completion or Pending
Until now, we have talked about the progresses that have been made in making Nagpur a smart city in the future. The projects that have been completed may give you a ray of hope that Nagpur will soon become a smart city, but there are many projects that are running behind their scheduled completion dates.
- Deadline Extensions
The deadline for all projects has been fixed to June 2021, and some projects have been completed by this date while for some projects, the deadline was extended multiple times. Even after passing many deadlines, some projects are still behind schedule, and we don’t know when those projects will be completed. However, the government is pushing the companies that have been allotted the projects to complete the work as soon as possible.
- Incomplete Projects
According to the government’s report in August 2025, 39 out of 47 allotted projects were completed, and the remaining seven projects have repeatedly crossed multiple deadlines. Those incomplete projects, mostly road works, are expected to be completed soon. Let’s see when those projects will get completed.
- Stalled Projects
Apart from completed and incomplete projects, there are some projects that have been stalled due to some reasons. For example, there was a rehabilitation project for brick kiln families announced initially, which was stalled due to a dispute over land relocation (No Objection Certificate not issued).
- Maintenance Concerns
After the completion of the completed Nagpur smart city projects, those projects are handed over to the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). However, there are concerns about whether NMC will be able to maintain the high-value, tech-heavy infrastructure, as it does not have any experience of handling the same. Let’s see how NMC will handle the tech-heavy infrastructure.
This is our take on the progress of projects under the Nagpur Smart City project, which was announced in 2016. There are some projects that have been completed by the deadline date of June 2021; however, there are some that have not been completed yet, but they will be completed soon, and make Nagpur a smart city. We hope you liked reading this post. Share your thoughts in the comments.
