Indian Smart cities - An Urban Dream or a Decade of Missed Opportunities?

Imagine living in a city that knows everything about you. It knows when you leave for work, which route you take, how much water you consume, where traffic will build up before it even happens, and even when your neighbourhood’s garbage bins need to be emptied. Sounds like the future, doesn’t it?

Ten years ago, India promised exactly that future. In June 2015, the Government of India launched the Smart Cities Mission with an ambitious dream—to transform 100 cities into cleaner, safer, technologically advanced, and sustainable urban centres. It was a bold attempt to answer a pressing question: How do we make Indian cities liveable in the twenty-first century?

At a time when millions of Indians were battling traffic congestion, pollution, poor waste management, shrinking public spaces, and crumbling infrastructure, the mission was welcomed with immense optimism. It was not merely an urban development programme; it was a promise that cities could become engines of opportunity rather than symbols of chaos. A decade later, however, the excitement has given way to a more complicated reality. Yes, cities have become smarter. There are command centres, thousands of surveillance cameras, intelligent traffic systems, smart classrooms, and digital services. Yet, millions of citizens continue to struggle with the same fundamental problems they did ten years ago. The contradiction is impossible to ignore. 

How can a city be called smart if its citizens still struggle to access clean water, affordable housing, and safe public spaces?

Perhaps the real question was never whether India could build smart cities. Perhaps the real question was whether India understood what a smart city truly meant. Ten years after its launch, the Smart Cities Mission deserves more than a progress report. It deserves an honest conversation. Was it a transformative urban revolution or a decade of fragmented ambitions, missed opportunities, and expensive experiments? The answer lies somewhere in between.