Cabinet clears Rs1,00,000-cr smart city, urban transport projects

The union cabinet today gave its nod to NDA government's flagship 100 smart cities project and the new urban renewal mission with a total outlay of about Rs1,00,000 crore, to be spent under two new urban missions over the next five years.

The cabinet approved the `Smart Cities Mission' and the `Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation' (AMRUT) for 500 cities with outlays of Rs48,000 crore and Rs50,000 crore, respectively.

Under the Smart Cities Mission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet project, each selected city would get central assistance of Rs100 crore per year for five years. Smart city aspirants will be selected through a 'City Challenge Competition' intended to link financing with the ability of the cities to perform to achieve the mission objectives. Each state will shortlist a certain number of smart city aspirants as per the norms to be indicated and they will prepare smart city proposals for further evaluation for extending central support.

The mission intends to promote adoption of smart solutions for efficient use of available assets, resources and infrastructure with the objective of enhancing the quality of urban life and providing a clean and sustainable environment.

Special emphasis will be given to participation of citizens in prioritising and planning urban interventions. It will be implemented through 'area based' approach consisting of retrofitting, redevelopment, pan-city initiatives and development of new cities.

Under retrofitting, deficiencies in an identified area will be addressed through necessary interventions as in the case of Local Area Plan for downtown Ahmedabad.

Redevelopment enables reconstruction of already built-up area that is not amenable for any interventions, to make it smart, as in the case of Bhendi Bazar in Mumbai and West Kidwai Nagar in New Delhi.

Pan-city components could be interventions like Intelligent Transport Solutions that benefit all residents by reducing commuting time.

Under smart cities initiative, focus will be on core infrastructure services like adequate and clean water supply, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transportation, affordable housing for the poor, power supply, robust IT connectivity, governance, especially e-governance and citizen participation, safety and security of citizens, health and education and sustainable urban environment.

Smart city action plans will be implemented by special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to be created for each city and state governments will ensure steady stream of resources for SPVs.

AMRUT is the new name for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), which has been renamed after NDA's first Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The two missions are interlinked. AMRUT adopts a project approach to ensure basic infrastructure services relating to water supply, sewerage, sewage management, storm water drains, transport and development of green spaces and parks with special provision for meeting the needs of children. Implementation of this mission will be linked to promotion of urban reforms such as e-governance, constitution of professional municipal cadre, devolving funds and functions to urban local bodies, review of building bye-laws, improvement in assessment and collection of municipal taxes, credit rating of urban local bodies, energy and water audit and citizen-centric urban planning.

The cabinet also approved central funding under AMRUT to the projects sanctioned under JNNURM and not completed. JNNURM projects sanctioned during 2005-2012 and which have achieved physical progress of 50 per cent availing 50 per cent of central assistance released and those sanctioned during 2012-2014 will be supported till March 2017.

Accordingly, 102 and 296 projects, respectively, will get central support for balance funding to complete these projects.

The central spending approved for next five years under the two new missions which are interlinked assumes significance in the backdrop of the approved Plan outlay of Rs42,900 crore for JNNURM that was implemented over nine years between 2005 and 2014. Out of this, actual central assistance released was Rs36,398 crore only.

Also, in a significant departure from JNNURM, central government will not appraise individual projects. Central assistance will be to the extent of 50 per cent of project cost for cities and towns with a population of up to 10 lakh and one-third of the project cost for those with a population of above 10 lakh.

The government expects the projects to bring in a minimum investment flows of over Rs2,00,000 crore into urban areas over the next five years since states and urban local bodies would mobilise matching resources ranging from 50 per cent to 66 per cent.

In addition, substantial private investments would be mobilised by states and urban local bodies through PPP model as required to meet the project cost.