NEW DELHI (INDIA): Further to launch of major new urban sector missions in June,2015, implementation of urban infrastructure projects got off a good start in 2016, the first year of execution.
Brisk execution of urban infrastructure projects, approval of smart city plans for 60 cities, credit rating of cities for resource mobilization through municipal bonds, Swachh Bharat Mission picking up momentum in urban areas, enactment of Real Estate Act and notification of Real Estate Rules, large scale approval of construction of affordable houses for urban poor and massive investment approval in urban areas have, modification of Building Bye-laws and simplification of approvals for building plans and construction permits made the year 2016 a new landmark in urban development.
Under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), a total of 490 projects with an investment of Rs.6,571 crore have taken off the ground. These include 102 projects to ensure water supply connections to all households besides enabling water supply at the normative 135 litres per head per day in 76 cities at a total cost of Rs.3,474 crore and 41 sewerage and septage management projects and augmenting water supply in an‑other 39 mission cities at a cost of Rs.2,878 crore. Another 319 projects with a cost of Rs.9,686 crore are close to being awarded for implementation. Development of open and green spaces is in progress in almost all the 500 mission cities.
Investment of Rs.30,657 crore has been approved under Atal Mission during 2016 for improving infrastructure relating water supply, sewerage networks, storm water drains, urban transport with focus on non-motorised transport and open and green spaces.
Under Smart city Mission that involved the complex task of converting city-wise Smart City Plans into projects warranting elaborate technical planning, 87 projects in 19 cities worth Rs.5,768 crore are under execution with seven of them already completed, even though the first batch of 20 smart cities was announced in January, 2016.
Another 80 projects with an investment of Rs.4,448 crore are close to being awarded for implementation. A total investment of Rs.1,32,197 crore has been approved under the Smart City Plans of 60 cities during January-December, 2016.
During this year, a qualitative transformation has been set in motion with cities embarking on credit rating which is necessary for mobilization of much required resources through municipal bonds. 87 smart cities have undertaken credit rating exercise with 16 of them completing the process. 12 cities that have been given credit rating are: Pune-AA, Ahmedabad and New Delhi Municipal Council-AA minus, Visakhapatnam-A, Jaipur- A minus, Udaipur, Kota and Ajmer-BBB plus, Tirupati, Kakinada and Bhubaneswar-BBB and Roukela-BB plus.
Swachh Bhart Mission in urban areas got close to half-way mark of mission targets in building toilets during this year. As against the target of building over 66 lakh individual household toilets, 27,81,883 have already been built and construction of another 21,43,222 toilets is nearing completion as the mission gained momentum in 2016. While 5.08 lakh community and public toilet seats are required to be built by 2019, already 1,07,272 toilet seats have been built so far and construction of another 1,28,550 toilet seats in nearing completion. Of the over 81,000 urban wards in the country, 39,995 wards have reported 100% door-to-door collection of municipal solid waste. 482 cities have reported to have become Open Defecation Free during 2016. Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Sikkim have declared all cities and towns as ODF. Kerala is set to do so by March next year.
65 kms of metro projects have been approved during 2016 with an investment of Rs.22,118 crore. These include Lucknow Metro (22 km with a cost of Rs.6,928 crore), Chennai Metro Extension (9 km, Rs.3,720 crore) and Pune Metro (31 km, Rs.11,420 crore).
Under Heritage Infrastructure Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), implementation of projects worth about Rs.200 crore has begun during 2016 in the cities of
Ajmer, Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), Amritsar, Kancheepuram and Vellankini (both in Tamil Nadu), Varanasi and Warangal(Telangana).
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) has hit a new high with construction of 9,02,008 affordable houses for urban poor being approved during 2016 alone as against over 13 lakh such houses approved during 2005-2014. With this, a total of 12,91,271 affordable houses have been approved for urban poor under this new housing mission. About three lakh houses have so far been built including those sanctioned under JNNURM and RAY which were subsumed under PMAY(Urban) and being financed.
A major highlight of 2016 being enactment of Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act and subsequent notification of Real Estate Rules for five Union Territories without legislatures by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and by the Ministry of Urban Development for Delhi. Some States too have come out with such Rules. This legislation that came into being after a long wait of 8 years has been widely welcomed.
Under Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-NULM, meant for enhancing employability and enhancing incomes of urban poor, 7,38,387 beneficiaries have skill trained, 1,18,190 urban poor have been assisted for self-employment through subsidized loans and 1,43,430 Self-Help Groups have been formed. Street vendor survey has been taken up in 902 cities and completed in 641 cities. 9,42,774 street vendors have been identified and 2,22,210 of them have been issued ID cards.
Towards improving the ‘Ease of doing business’, Ministry of Urban Development issued in March, 2016 ‘Model Building Bye-laws’ providing a framework for online approvals for building and construction projects in urban areas including simplified environmental and other clearences with in 30 days besides promoting green construction technologies. In pursuance of these modified laws, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change on December 16, 2016 issued a notification under which a self-declaration is sufficient for building and construction projects up to 20,000 sq.mt area and for 20,000-1,50,000 sq.ara, environmental clearance would be issued by urban local bodies as a part of building plan approvals, after due modification of Building Bye-laws.
In a significant land mark, during January-December, 2016, a total investment of Rs.2,72,380 crore has been approved for augmenting urban infrastructure, a sector that has been starved of investments over the previous decades. This includes – Rs.1,32,197 crore under Smart City Plans of 60 cities, Rs.30,657 crore under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Rs.48,773 crore under PMAY(Urban), Rs.22,118 crore for new Metro Projects and Rs.5,500 crore under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) and Rs.32,835 crore for redevelopment of seven central government residential colonies in New Delhi.
With this, the total investment approved by this Government for improving urban infrastructure has increased to Rs.3,38,481 crore, marking a manifold increase over that of previous years.
On progress of implementation of new urban missions, Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu said to media : “New urban missions except Swachh Bharat Mission were launched in 2015 after a year long extensive consultations with States, Urban Local Bodies and other stakeholders. Project formulation under these new missions warranted comprehensive assessment of city level infrastructure deficits and projectisation accordingly.
Decentralization of project formulation, their appraisal and approval besides substantial hand holding by both the urban ministries resulted in speedy approvals. City governments were required to adopt new approaches in place of the earlier business as usual attitude. They rose to the occasion to a large extent and that is evident in the pace of implementation. The new found spirit of competition among States and cities is giving positive results. Ease of doing business in urban areas is improving rapidly. I welcome the notification of the Ministry of Environment and Forests this week simplifying green clearences for construction projects. On the whole, 2016, the first year of execution of new missions has been encouraging. We would like this momentum even to be further enhanced so that intended outcomes are realized within stipulated time frames.”
For Delhi, the central government has approved redevelopment of seven General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) colonies at a total investment of Rs.32,835 crore on self-financing basis during 2016. These colonies are; Sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar and Nauroji Nagar to be redeveloped by the NBCC and Kasturba Nagar, Tyagaraj Nagar, Sreenivasapuri and Mohammadpur by CPWD. This will result in creating of housing stock of 25,667 Type-II to Type-IV houses in place of the old existing 12,970 units alongwith 3.25 lakh sq.mtrs of supporting social infrastructure and 2.42 lakh sq.mts of government office space.
To make the Building Bye-laws citizen friendly and to enhance ‘Ease of doing business’, they have been revised after 33 years and Unified Building Bye-laws for Delhi have been notified in March,2016. This brings down time limit for granting building permits from 60 to 30 days in general and to below 20 days for lower risk buildings and the number of documents to be submitted from 40 to 14. No building plan approvals are now required for plot areas up to 105 sq.mt.
To enhance Ease of Doing Business, integrated online building permission system has been commenced during 2016 in Delhi and Mumbai under which approvals are being accorded in less than 30 days.
Some major water supply projects under implementation under AMRUT:
Karnataka: Bijapur-Rs.174 crore,
Mandya-Rs.124 crore,
Hassan-Rs.115 crore,
Chitradurga-Rs.110 crore,
Bellary-Rs.72 cr and Hospet-Rs.51 crore.
Tamil Nadu: Thanjavur-Rs.53 crore.
Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal-Rs.155 crore,
Chattarpur- Rs.63 crore.
Maharashtra: Vasai-Virar –Rs.136 cr, Amaravati – Rs.114 crore, Malegaon-Rs.78 crore,
Osmanabad-Rs.68 crore, Panvel-Rs.51 crore.
Gujarat: Morvi-Rs.150 crore,
Chattisgarh: Korba-Rs.145 crore, Bhilai Nagar-Rs.104 crore
Uttar Pradesh: Orai-Rs.121 crore
Bihar: Chapra-Rs.62 crore
Punjab: Ludhiana-Rs.68 crore
West Bengal- Bardhman – Rs.59 crore
Chandigarh : Rs.24 crore
Odisha: Cuttack-Rs.34 crore
Some major sewerage projects under execution:
Karnataka: Gulbarga-Rs.175 crore, Gadag-Betigere-Rs.159 crore, Hubli-Dharwar-Rs.157 crore, Bidar-Rs.125 crore,
Bengaluru- Rs.60 crore.
Telangana- Siddipet-Rs.18 crore
Madhya Pradesh : Sagar-Rs.299 crore, Rewa-Rs.199 crore, Satna-Rs.192 crore, Morena-Rs.128 crore, Neemuch –Rs.68 crore
Rajasthan : Bhiwadi-Rs.130 crore, Sikar-Rs.110 crore, Alwar-Rs.86 crore
Gujarat: Vadodara-Rs.89 crore
Punjab: Abohar-Rs.83 crore
Uttar Pradesh: Muzaffarnagar- Rs.27 crore
Smart City Mission- Projects completed
Jaipur: Provision of Wi-fi network under smart solutions-Rs.104 cr, Rehabilitation of Bawris-Rs.9 crore
Udaipur: Installation roof top solar panels, Smart Class Rooms in Government Schools, Open air gym at
Gulab Park (Rs.3.50 crore)
Surat : E-governance project (Rs.5 crore)
Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh): 7 E-pathasala class rooms (Rs.10 lakhs)
Some major Smart City Projects in progress:
Ahmedabad: Retrofitting of utilities in identified smart city area (TOZ area)- Rs.675 crore, Slum rehabilitationin Jujnavada area under PPP- Rs.462 crore. A total of 24 projects with a cost of Rs.2,667 crore are in progress in Ahmedabad.
Surat: Smart cards for automatic fare collection – Rs.74 crore.
Coimbattore (Tamil Nadu) : 24 x 7 water supply : Rs.556 crore.
Amritsar : Solid Waste Management Project- Rs.294 crore
Ludhiana: Solid Waste Management project-Rs.98 crore, CCTV surveillance- Rs.70 crore
New Delhi Municipal Council: Energy management through Smart Grid- Rs.529 crore, Mini STP-37 crore, Smart
Toilets at 110 locations-Rs.22 crore. A total of 14 projects at a cost of Rs.656 crore in progress.
Pune: Intelligent Traffic Management Systems on buses: Rs.104 crore, Street lighting –Rs.90 crore. A total of
4 projects at a cost of Rs.214 crore in progress.
Nagpur: Technology based Smart Solutions –Rs.520 crore.
Belgavi (Karnataka): Sewerage networks and Sewage Treatment Plant-272 crore
Davnagere (Karnataka): Sewerage works-Rs.5 crore
Kochi(Kerala): Pan city Smart card project: Rs.25 crore
Guwahati: Conversion of Deputy Commissioner’s office into Interpretation centre and public park-Rs.11 crore
Bhubaneswar- Urban Knowledge Centre- Rs.8.50 crore
Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh):Roof top solar panels on government buildings-Rs.40 crore,
Upgradation of eateries- Rs.5.60 cr
Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh): Smart Electricity Metering- Rs.27 cr
Bhopal: GIS based Property Tax rationalization- Rs.4.50 cr, Bicycle track-Rs.4.30 cr
Solapur: Green space around Fort-Rs.0.22 crore.
HRIDAY projects taken up for implementation during 2016 :
Varanasi : Improving accessibility to various heritage and religious sites, façade improvement, street
illumination, adaptive resuse of Town Hall – Rs.78 crore
Amritsar : Improvement of roads leading to heritage and religious sites, revitalization of water bodies,
Façade improvement, development of open spaces – Rs.40 crore
Ajmer : Heritage walk trail, Lakefront development, Façade improvement, Open spaces-Rs.35 crore
Amaravati (AP): Access improvement to heritage places, Park development, Heritage walk-Rs.18.50 crore
Warangal(Telangana): Promenade along lake development, tourism and pilgrimage ameneties-Rs.20 crore
Kancheepuram: Heritage sensitive civic infrastructure around temples-Rs.17.50 crore
Vellankini (TN): Civic infrastructure project completed at a cost of Rs.1.00 crore