 "Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu. Photo: PTI")
Implementation of urban missions, including Swachh Bharat, will continue to be the focus area of the new year, says Urban Development and HUPA Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who has set a target of achieving enhanced outcomes within stipulated time frames.
2016 remained a hectic year for his ministries which succeeded in getting the Real Estate Bill passed in Parliament and giving momentum to Swachh Bharat Mission in urban areas, getting close to the half-way mark of mission targets in constructing toilets.
"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 realised within stipulated time frames," he said.
He said new urban missions, except Swachh Bharat Mission, were launched in 2015 after year-long "extensive consultations" with states, Urban Local Bodies and other stakeholders.
"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," he said.
Naidu said there was a "new-found spirit of competition" among states and cities is giving "positive results", adding the ease of doing business in urban areas is "improving rapidly".
The year saw the selection of 60 cities in three rounds for financial assistance from the Centre to develop them as smart cities.
Swachh Bharat Mission in urban areas got close to halfway mark of mission targets in building toilets during this year.
As against the target of building over 66 lakh individual household toilets, about 27.82 lakh have already been built and construction of another 21.43 lakh 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 lakh toilet seats have been built so far and construction of another 1.28 lakh toilet seats in nearing completion.
As many as 482 cities have reported to have become open defecation free during 2016 with Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim declaring all its cities and towns achieving such a feat. Kerala is set to do so by March next year.
While there were widespread activities under Swachh Bharat Mission, the year also saw the enactment of Real Estate Act and simplification of approvals for building plans and construction permits.
Over 60 km of metro projects were 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).
The year also saw approval of 9.02 lakh affordable houses for urban poor under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) scheme.
Significantly, a total investment of Rs 2.72 lakh crore was approved for augmenting urban infrastructure during January-December with Rs 1.32 lakh 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) and Rs 22,118 crore for new Metro projects.
About Rs 5,500 crore investment was approved under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) and Rs 32,835 crore for re-development of seven central government residential colonies in New Delhi.
For Delhi, the central government also approved re-development of seven General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) colonies at a total investment of Rs 32,835 crore on self-financing basis during the year.
Investment of Rs 30,657 crore was approved under Atal Mission during 2016 for improving infrastructure relating water supply, sewerage networks, storm water drains, urban transport with the focus on non-motorised transport and open and green spaces.
During the year, a qualitative transformation has been set in motion with cities embarking on credit rating which is necessary for mobilisation of the much-required resources through municipal bonds.
