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Nagpur's Smart City Rise Amid Vidarbha’s Urban Neglect: The Regional Divide

Nagpur's Smart City Rise Amid Vidarbha’s Urban Neglect: The Regional Divide
Nagpur's Smart City Rise Amid Vidarbha’s Urban Neglect: The Regional Divide

The gleaming promise of digital transformation adorning Nagpur as Maharashtra's sole representative from Vidarbha in the Smart Cities Mission stands in stark contrast to the crumbling urban infrastructure plaguing neighbouring municipal bodies across the region.


While Nagpur received ₹741.63 crore in central funding for technological upgrades and modern amenities, cities like Wardha, Yavatmal, Akola, and Bhandara grapple with basic civic service failures that expose the widening intra-regional development chasm.


This disparity illuminates not just administrative priorities but fundamental questions about equitable resource allocation within Maharashtra's eastern region.


Recent data reveals that whilst Nagpur transforms select areas through smart solutions, municipal councils across Vidarbha struggle with deteriorating water supply systems, defunct waste management, and inadequate healthcare infrastructure that serves millions of residents.


The Smart City Advantage: Nagpur's Technological Transformation


When the Smart Cities Mission selected 100 cities nationwide in 2015, Nagpur emerged as Vidarbha's singular representative, positioning itself alongside metropolitan centres like Mumbai, Pune, and Nashik.


The Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Limited received substantial central government funding amounting to ₹741.63 crore, complemented by an additional ₹400 crore approved by former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis from the state exchequer.

The initiative encompassed two major components: a ₹524 crore Smart and Safe City Project introducing 17 smart solutions including CCTV surveillance systems, integrated command and control centres, and advanced traffic management systems. The second component involved a ₹741.62 crore area-based development plan targeting 1,743 acres across Pardi, Bharatwada, Bhandewadi, and Punapur in east Nagpur.


These investments yielded tangible technological infrastructure. Nagpur achieved the distinction of becoming the first city in the country with internet connectivity across 775 gram panchayats and established widespread wi-fi hotspots. The city implemented comprehensive fibre optic networks spanning thousands of kilometres, enabling digital governance platforms and real-time monitoring systems that municipal authorities across Vidarbha could only aspire to replicate.


Under the Smart Cities Mission, citizens remained the priority rather than implementing agencies, with initiatives aimed at making people's lives easier through technological integration.


The mission established sustainable systems with 24/7 water supply capabilities and proper sewerage infrastructure, setting operational benchmarks that highlighted the gap between Nagpur's modernisation and the basic service deficits plaguing other regional centres.


However, ground-level assessments revealed mixed outcomes. By March 2025, as the Smart Cities Mission tenure concluded, several projects remained incomplete.

Of the planned 49.76 km road network in Area-Based Development zones, only 26 km reached completion. Similarly, just 10 of 28 planned bridges were constructed, whilst 65 smart kiosks installed across the city remained non-functional due to inadequate backend support systems.


Vidarbha's Municipal Struggles: Basic Services in Decline


Beyond Nagpur's technological boundaries, municipal bodies across Vidarbha confront fundamental infrastructure crises that underscore the region's uneven development trajectory.


Wardha Municipal Council exemplifies these challenges, where a Performance Improvement Plan revealed critical gaps in water supply coverage and sanitation facilities affecting over 168,000 residents.

The Wardha water supply system, operated through private contractors due to insufficient technical staff, serves only 115 litres per capita daily with an average supply duration of just 45 minutes on alternate days. Complete absence of water metering has resulted in poor cost recovery and collection efficiency, whilst 19 percent of the population continues to practice open defecation due to inadequate sanitation facilities. The municipal council's budget allocated merely ₹29 crore for constructing individual and community toilets, highlighting resource constraints that prevent basic service delivery.


Yavatmal Municipal Council faces similar predicaments, with water supply operations entirely managed by Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran due to local capacity limitations. Coverage of household-level water connections in slum settlements reaches only 21 percent, significantly below city-wide averages, whilst individual toilet coverage in slum areas stands at merely 33 percent.


The municipality's revenue surplus has decreased consistently, with grants and contributions comprising 60 percent of total revenue income, indicating heavy dependence on external funding for basic operations.

The

Akola district administration has repeatedly exposed civic body preparedness failures. Recent assessments revealed that the municipal corporation lacks adequate infrastructure for waste management, with drainage systems inadequate for seasonal rainfall.


The 2025 rainfall incident, which recorded 66mm in two hours and broke an 82-year record, left the city's flyover flooded due to damaged pipelines, whilst several areas, including Old City, Gaurakshan Road, and Ramdaspeth, experienced prolonged power outages.


Bhandara Municipal Council's environmental action plan indicates systematic service delivery challenges. The municipality generates 30.5 metric tonnes of solid waste daily, yet lacks proper segregation and treatment facilities.

Only limited construction and demolition waste management systems exist, whilst sewage treatment capacity remains insufficient for the 23.25 million litres of daily wastewater generation from seven urban local bodies across the district.


Financial Disparities and Resource Allocation Patterns


The stark funding differential between Nagpur's Smart Cities allocation and budget constraints affecting other Vidarbha municipal bodies reveals systematic resource distribution inequities.


While Nagpur's ₹741.63 crore Smart Cities funding represented dedicated central government investment, municipal councils like Wardha required ₹70.5 crore merely to achieve basic service standards, including 24x7 water supply and open defecation-free status.

Maharashtra's municipal finance assessment indicates widespread dependency on grants among smaller urban local bodies.


Yavatmal Municipal Council derives 87 percent of total revenue from its own sources, primarily property tax collections, yet struggles with assessment and revision procedures.


The average collection efficiency of property tax reaches 95 percent over five years, but inadequate property assessment systems limit revenue generation potential.


State-level budget allocations demonstrate regional spending disparities. From 2013-14 to 2020-21, Vidarbha received 27.97 percent of the divisible fixed expenditure in annual plans, compared to 54.05 percent allocated to the rest of Maharashtra.


However, this allocation mechanism excludes special project funding like Smart Cities investments, which concentrate significant resources in select urban centres whilst leaving other municipalities dependent on routine budgetary provisions.


The 15th Finance Commission's municipal finance analysis revealed that Maharashtra's urban local bodies allocate approximately 20 percent of state revenues to local bodies, with heavy bias towards Panchayati Raj Institutions receiving 78 percent of allocated funds.


Urban local bodies receive proportionally less funding despite housing larger population concentrations, creating structural imbalances that affect service delivery capacity across regional centres.


Municipal corporations in metropolitan areas benefit from additional revenue streams, including development charges, infrastructure cess, and commercial tax collections that remain unavailable to smaller municipal councils.

This revenue differential compounds operational disparities, as larger cities can invest in modern systems whilst smaller centres struggle with basic service maintenance using limited budget allocations.


Infrastructure Quality and Service Delivery Gaps


The infrastructure development gap between Nagpur and other Vidarbha municipal bodies extends beyond financial allocations to encompass service quality and technological adoption.


Nagpur's Smart Cities infrastructure includes integrated command centres capable of coordinating traffic management, emergency response, and utility monitoring across the metropolitan area.

These systems enable real-time decision-making and resource allocation that smaller municipal bodies cannot replicate without substantial capital investment.


Water supply infrastructure demonstrates these disparities most clearly. Nagpur achieved 24x7 water supply capabilities through smart grid systems and automated monitoring, whilst Wardha supplies water for average 45-minute durations on alternate days. Yavatmal depends entirely on Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran for water operations, indicating institutional capacity constraints that prevent local management of essential services.


Waste management systems reflect similar gaps. Nagpur's smart waste management includes GPS-enabled collection vehicles, segregation facilities, and processing plants that handle municipal solid waste efficiently.


Conversely, Akola's waste management relies on manual collection systems with limited segregation capabilities, whilst Bhandara's municipal council struggles with basic waste transportation to disposal sites.


Healthcare infrastructure shows pronounced regional variations. Nagpur benefits from well-equipped government medical facilities, private hospitals, and telemedicine capabilities enhanced through smart city connectivity.


Rural and semi-urban centres across Vidarbha face healthcare provider shortages, with government facilities often lacking specialist services that force residents to travel to Nagpur for advanced medical care.

Transportation connectivity favours Nagpur through metro rail systems, intelligent traffic management, and integrated public transport networks developed under smart city initiatives. Other Vidarbha cities depend on conventional road networks with limited public transport options, creating mobility constraints that affect economic opportunities and quality of life for residents.

The disparity between Nagpur's technological advancement and neighbouring municipal bodies' basic service struggles reflects broader patterns of urban development concentration that characterise Maharashtra's eastern region.


While policy frameworks emphasise balanced regional development, actual resource allocation and project implementation continue to favour established urban centres, perpetuating intra-regional inequalities that affect millions of Vidarbha residents seeking equitable access to modern urban amenities and reliable civic services.


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The NewsDirt is a trusted source for authentic, ground-level journalism, highlighting the daily struggles, public issues, history, and local stories from Vidarbha’s cities, towns, and villages. Committed to amplifying voices often ignored by mainstream media, we bring you reliable, factual, and impactful reporting from Vidarbha’s grassroots.

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