Last two years’ push worth efforts of previous ten years, asserts Minister
Southern States in the forefront of enabling housing for urban poor
Investment of about Rs. 51,000 cr approved for basic urban and housing infrastructure in southern States during last one year
Southern States so far approved central assistance of Rs.16,579 cr
Expressing serious concern over the acute deficit in urban infrastructure in the country, Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu today asserted that the Government led by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has mainstreamed the urban agenda, ending decades long neglect. He spoke of a range of challenges in the urban sector and the concerted efforts launched to address the same while addressing the ‘Regional Editors Conference’ in Chennai.
Shri Venkaiah Naidu stated that the Modi led Government inherited not only a derailed economy but also a crumbling urban landscape adversely impacting the quality of life and economic activities. “Prime Minister Shri Modi asked us to convert these challenges into opportunities and a comprehensive action plan has been launched to recast the urban landscape with the involvement of citizens, urban local bodies and the States, through a paradigm shift in the approach” said Shri Naidu.
Comparing the initiatives taken during 2004-14 and the last two years, Shri Naidu noted that “in a very short period, we have either exceeded or close to what was done under 10 years of JNNURM in respect of all comparable and measurable parameters”. In support of his assertion, Shri Naidu stated that ;
-Central Government has committed to provide central assistance of Rs.1,13,143 cr for improving urban infrastructure (excluding housing infrastructure) which is 333% increase over Rs.33,902 cr that was approved under 10 years of JUUNRM during 2004-14;
-Under the new urban missions, an investment potential of about Rs.18 lakh crore has been created of which an investment of Rs.1,80,213 cr has already been approved within a short span of over one year of launch of new schemes;
-As against construction of 13.70 lakh houses for urban poor approved during 2004-14, construction of 9 lakh houses has been approved during the last one year which comes to 66% of the approvals of the previous ten years;
-Under the new urban missions, total central assistance of Rs.53,747 cr to States and urban local bodies has been already approved for release which is almost at par with the total central assistance of Rs.54,974 cr that was approved in the previous ten years, including for housing for urban poor; and
-Grant of about Rs.87,000 cr is being directly made available to urban local bodies over a period of five years from 2015-16 as against only Rs.23,000 cr during the last five years. In addition, share of States in divisible revenues has been increased to 42% from the earlier 32%.
Shri Naidu explained that the scale and pace of project approvals and resource flows have been enhanced through a paradigm shift in the approaches that include extensive one year long stakeholder consultations including with citizens, urban local bodies and State Governments, objective selection of cities and towns under different new urban missions, introduction of innovative competition based selection of cities under Smart City Mission and incentivizing implementation of reforms for better urban governance. These measures have resulted in a new consciousness and a spirit of healthy competition among urban local bodies and States, he said.
The Minister stated that southern States are in the forefront of implementation of housing projects for urban poor under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). Elaborating further, he said that though southern States account for 27% of urban population of the country, they have got 3.80 lakh houses sanctioned accounting for 42% of the 8.99 lakh houses sanctioned.
Shri Naidu informed that out of the total investment of Rs.1,80,213 cr approved so far under new urban missions for the country, share of southern States is Rs.50,959 cr. The details are: State/UT | Investment Under Smart City Mission (Rs.Cr) | Invest. Under AMRUT (Rs.Cr) | Invest. Under Swachh Bharat Mission* (Rs.Cr) | Invest. Under HRIDAY (Rs.Cr) | Invest. Under Housing Mission (Rs.Cr) | Total Invest. Approved So far (Rs.Cr) | Central Assistance Approved (Rs.Cr) |
A & N Islands | 777 | 3 | 1 | - | - | 781 | 504 |
Andhra Pradesh | 3,595 | 1,540 | 91 | 22 | 10,579 | 15,827 | 4,571 |
Karnataka | 4,841 | 2,901 | 159 | 22 | 2,385 | 10,308 | 3,177 |
Kerala | 2,076 | 588 | 34 | - | 263 | 2,961 | 953 |
Laksha- dweep | - | 1 | - | - | - | 1 | 1 |
Puduchery | - | 19 | 2 | - | - | 21 | 19 |
Tamil Nadu | 2,936 | 7,083 | 340 | 45 | 1,796 | 12,190 | 5,007 |
Telangana | 2,860 | 970 | 119 | 40 | 4,881 | 8,870 | 2,347 |
Total | 17,085 | 13,105 | 746 | 129 | 19,894 | 50,959 | 16,579 |
All India | 78,292 | 44,455 | 3,000 | 500 | 53,966 | 1,80,213 | 53,747 |
*Information about investments made by States/UTs under Swachh Bharat Mission not available. Hence, funds released by GOI under this mission is only taken into consideration.
September 1, 2016