URBAN RENAISSANCE:  REJUVENATING & TRANSFORMING INDIAN CITIES, BEING ACHIEVED THROUGHINFUSION OF MORE THAN RS.6,85,758 CR

The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has embarked upon one of the most ambitious programmes undertaken in the world for Urban renaissance for rejuvenating and transforming Indian cities through a number of initiatives including infusion of more than Rs. 6,85,758 crore for ensuring citizen friendly urban areas. The transformation has been undertaken by way of implementing key urban reforms, projects for urban rejuvenation, provision of water, sewerage and sanitation under the Mission AMRUT by sanctioning projects worth Rs.77,640 crore.

ATAL MISSION FOR REJUVENATION & URBAN TRANSFORMATION (AMRUT)

 Out of the total State Annual Action Plan(SAAP) size of Rs. 77,640 crore, contracts for 4,097 projects worth Rs. 54,816 crore have been awarded including 1,035 projects worth Rs. 2,388 crore which have been completed. Tenders have already been issued for 755 projects worth Rs. 14,770 crore and DPRs for 458 projects worth Rs. 9,183 crore have been approved. The sector wise progress in implementation of the Mission is as under:

• In the water supply sector, contracts for 965 projects worth Rs. 29,205 crore have been awarded including 154 projects worth Rs. 1,325 crore which have been completed. 151 projects worth Rs. 8,047 crore have been tendered and DPRs for 97 projects worth Rs. 4,318 crore approved.

• In the sewerage and septage management sector, contracts for 491 projects worth Rs. 21,508 crore have been awarded including 40 projects worth Rs.520 crore which have been completed. 151 projects worth Rs. 5,596 crore have been tendered and DPRs for 85 projects worth Rs. 4,507 crore approved.

• In the drainage sector, contracts for 516 projects worth Rs. 2,101 crore have been awarded including 51 projects worth Rs.81 crore which have been completed. 144 projects worth Rs.645 crore have been tendered and DPRs for 25 projects worth Rs. 111 crore approved.

• In the urban transport sector, contracts for 244 projects worth Rs.709 crore have been awarded including 18 projects worth Rs.41 crore which have been completed. 76 projects worth Rs.251 crore have been tendered and DPRs for 40 projects worth Rs.123 crore approved.

• In the green spaces and parks sector, contracts for 1,881 projects worth Rs. 1,293 crore have been awarded including 772 projects worth Rs.421 crore which have been completed. 233 projects worth Rs.231 crore have been tendered and DPRs for 211 projects worth Rs.124 crore approved. To optimize the energy consumption in streetlights, over 54 lakh streetlights have been replaced with LED lights.

AMRUT Mission also has a reform agenda spread over 11 reforms comprising 54 milestones to be achieved by the States and Union Territories over a period of four years. During 2018-19, an amount of Rs.600 crore has been earmarked to incentivize the states/ UTs for implementing reforms out of which, Rs.260 crore has been earmarked to incentivise the AMRUT cities for issuing municipal bonds. An amount of Rs.340 crore has been disbursed to 21 States/ UTs during the year 2018-19 for implementation of reforms.

Further, Rs.119 crore has been awarded as incentive to 5 cities viz. Pune, Hyderabad, Indore, Bhopal and Amravati for issuing the municipal bonds.

The World Bank has recently released the Doing Business Report (DBR) 2019 and the country’s rank in Construction Permits indicator has gone up to 52 from 181, a year ago. This was achieved due to the reforms implemented and consistent efforts of the Municipal Corporations of Delhi and Mumbai in facilitating Ease of Doing Business in construction permits. Further, Online Building Permission System (OBPS) has been implemented in 1,453 cities across the country including 436 Mission cities. Ten States namely Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana and Tripura have implemented OBPS in all the ULBs. This is being extended to all the cities/ towns across the country.

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RJ/KGS