Union Cabinet approves CITIIS 2.0 with a focus on circular economy

In a push to support projects promoting a circular economy and climate-oriented reform actions, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain 2.0 (CITIIS 2.0). The scheme will run for a period of four years from 2023 to 2027.

CITIIS 2.0 aims to leverage and scale up the learnings of CITIIS 1.0, which was launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs with a total outlay of Rs 933 crore.

Announcing the scheme, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said the programme would include the construction of a circular economy with related projects such as combined waste management, climate change observatories, and institutional strengthening and knowledge dissemination at the national level. The three components of CITIIS 2.0 include financial and technical support for developing projects focused on building climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation in up to 18 smart cities. 

The funding for CITIIS 2.0 would include a loan of 200 million euros or Rs 1,760 crore with AFD and German development bank KfW contributing 100 million euros each, and a technical assistance grant of 12 million euros or Rs 106 crore from the EU, Thakur said.

All states and Union territories will be eligible for support on demand basis. The states will be provided support to (a) set-up/strengthen their existing climate centres/climate cells/ equivalents; (b) create state- and city-level climate data observatories; (c) facilitate climate-data-driven planning, and develop climate action plans; and (d) build capacities of municipal functionaries.

To achieve these objectives, the PMU or programme management unit at NIUA will coordinate the provision of technical assistance and strategic support to state governments.

The third component includes interventions at all three levels, the Centre, state and city, to further climate governance in urban India through institutional strengthening, knowledge dissemination, partnerships, building capacity, research and development to support the scaling up of capabilities across all states and cities.

CITIIS 2.0 will supplement the climate actions of the government through its ongoing National programmes (National Mission on Sustainable Habitat, AMRUT 2.0, Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 and Smart Cities Mission), as well as contributing positively to India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions and Conference of the Parties (COP26) commitments.

At present, 12 cities are already covered by the first tranche of the programme. More than 50 products and 150 technical documents have been created for urban practitioners. These include toolkits, templates, studies, and plans on various aspects of project implementation, which can be accessed on this website.