Smart Cities Spent Crores On Tech. Did Garbage Collection Actually Improve?
The Indian government's Smart Cities Mission has invested heavily in technology to improve urban waste management, including RFID-enabled vehicles and command centers. Data suggests significant improvements in collection coverage and waste processing rates since the program's inception.
Why it matters
It evaluates the efficacy of large-scale public technology investments in improving essential municipal services.
For years, the idea of a "smart city" in India was closely associated with command centres, cameras, sensors and dashboards. But there is a much simpler test of whether all that technology is working. Look down at the street.Is the garbage being picked up on time? Are waste vehicles actually covering their routes? Is waste being segregated? And after the garbage leaves a home, is it really being processed or simply moved from one place to another?India has spent thousands of crores trying to make its cities smarter. The Smart Cities Mission has seen around Rs 1.64 lakh crore invested across roughly 8,067 projects. As of May 2025, around 94 per cent of the projects had been completed.Waste management has been one part of that technology push.More than 66 cities under the Smart Cities Mission are using technology for solid-waste management.
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