Five states to spend Rs3,120 cr for improving infrastructure in 102 cities under AMRUT

The ministry of urban development on Thursday approved an investment of Rs3,120 crore for enhancing basic infrastructure in urban areas, including water supply, sewerage network services, storm water drains, non-motorised transport and availability of public spaces, in 102 cities, under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).

An inter-ministerial apex committee chaired by Madhusudhan Prasad, secretary (urban development) approved state level annual action plans for 2015-16 with an investment of Rs438 crore for Haryana (which has 18 Amrut cities), Rs573 crore for Chattisgarh (9 cities), Rs416 crore for Telangana (12 cities), Rs588 crore for Kerala (9 cities) and Rs1,105 crore for West Bengal (which has 54 Atal Mission cities).

Total investment in water supply projects in 58 mission states will be Rs2,386 crore, sewerage projects (Rs495 crore in 17 cities), storm water drains (Rs106 crore in 9 cities), urban transport (Rs61 crore in 9 cities) and Rs72 crore for development of parks and green spaces in all the 102 cities

The apex committee approved investments in different basic urban infrastructure areas as proposed by respective state governments. Ministry of urban development will provide an assistance of Rs1,540 crore, which is about 50 per cent of total project expenditure approved today.

With today's approvals, the ministry has so far cleared a total investment of Rs11,654 crore in 272 Atal Mission cities for improving infrastructure for ensuring water and sewerage connections to all households in Atal Mission cities besides enabling water supply as per the norm of 135 litres per capita per day for urban areas etc.

At present only about 50 per cent of urban households are provided with water connections and water supply is about 75 lpcd. Availability of sewerage connections is very low. Atal Mission seeks to bridge this deficit.

As per the state annual action plan (SAAP) for 2015-16, presented by the Haryana government, water supply at present in all the 18 mission cities is below the norm for urabn areas. It is only 43 litres per capita per day in Jind, 88 lpcd in Sonipet and a maximum of 130 lpcd in Gurgaon. In other mission cities of Rohtak, Ambala Cant, Thaneswar, Sirsa, Hisar, Palwal, Karnal, Yamuna Nagar, Kaithal, Bhiwani, Ambala City, Rewari, Panipat, Bahadurgarh and Jagadhari, present water supply is in the range of 102 lpcd to 127 lpcd.