In a significant administrative overhaul, the Maharashtra government has formally dissolved the leadership structure of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) set up under the Central government’s Smart City Mission, transferring all powers to the respective Municipal Corporation Commissioners. The Government Resolution (GR), issued by the Urban Development Department on April 22, 2026, effectively marks the beginning of the end for the standalone Smart City institutional machinery in the state.
What Were Smart City SPVs?
When the Centre launched the Smart City Mission, each selected city was required to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle — a separate company incorporated under the Companies Act — to plan, appraise, approve, and implement Smart City projects. These SPVs had their own Chairpersons, Boards of Directors, and Chief Executive Officers, typically drawn from senior IAS officers, functioning independently of the parent Municipal Corporation. Maharashtra had eight such SPVs operating across Nagpur, Nashik, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Solapur, and Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar).
What the GR Orders
The GR is sweeping in its scope. It orders the following:
The Chairpersons and Directors of all eight Smart City SPVs are relieved of their positions, and their powers stand transferred to the respective Municipal Corporation Commissioners. The CEO role of each SPV is similarly handed over to the Municipal Commissioner or Additional Commissioner of the concerned corporation.
All contractual officers and employees working under the Smart City SPVs are to be relieved and their charge transferred to regular Municipal Corporation staff — with a compliance report to be submitted to the government by April 30, 2026.
After the transfer of SPV assets to the Municipal Corporation is complete, the CEOs of each Smart City SPV are directed to independently initiate the process of winding up the company incorporated under the Companies Act for the Smart City Mission.
Who Gets Charge of Which City
The GR names specific IAS officers as the new custodians of Smart City powers. For Nagpur, Commissioner Bipin Iyenkar takes over from MMRDA Commissioner Sanjay Mukherjee. In Nashik, Commissioner Manisha Khatri, who was already holding additional charge as SPV CEO, now formally holds full authority. Pune’s Smart City powers move to Commissioner Navalkinshore Ram, while Pimpri-Chinchwad’s go to Commissioner Vijay Suryavanshi. Thane’s Commissioner Saurabh Rao, Kalyan-Dombivli’s Commissioner Abhinav Goyal, Solapur’s Commissioner Sachin Ombale, and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’s Commissioner Amol Yedge round out the list.
Why Is This Happening?
The GR’s preamble is candid about the reasons. The Smart City Mission’s operational period ended some time ago, and the Centre has made clear that no further funds will flow for the mission beyond its concluded tenure. All Smart City projects were to be completed by December 2025 — a deadline set at a meeting on April 7, 2025, and communicated through an official memorandum. With the project pipeline wound down and central funding ceased, maintaining parallel institutional infrastructure in the form of standalone SPVs no longer serves any administrative purpose.
The Maharashtra government had already directed the transfer of SPV assets to Municipal Corporations through a letter dated March 27, 2025, and the current GR is the logical follow-through — dismantling the human resource and governance layer of the SPVs as well.
The Larger Picture
The Smart City Mission, launched by the Centre in 2015, was one of India’s most ambitious urban transformation programmes, injecting funds into 100 selected cities for infrastructure, technology, and governance upgrades. Maharashtra had eight cities selected under the mission. However, the programme has faced sustained criticism for delays, incomplete projects, and the creation of parallel bureaucratic structures that sometimes operated at cross-purposes with the parent Municipal Corporations.
By merging Smart City powers back into the Municipal Commissioners’ offices, the Maharashtra government is signalling a consolidation of urban governance — streamlining accountability and reducing institutional duplication. The move also means that any pending Smart City works or assets will now fall squarely under the Municipal Corporation’s responsibility, with no separate body to either credit or blame.
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