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Chhattisgarh government on Wednesday tabled the first supplementary budget for the financial year 2016-17 with focus on shaping the state capital as smart city.
The first supplementary budget of Rs 2,154 crore would increase the size of state’s budget to over Rs 76,000 crore. In March, Chief Minister Raman Singh had tabled Rs 73,996 crore that was about 18 per cent higher than the budget size of previous financial year.
The state government had sought Rs 327 crore for the execution of smart city project. Raipur was recently selected for the Smart Cities Mission, a project of the Ministry of Urban Development. The old city of Raipur would be covered in the mission. Chhattisgarh is also developing Naya Raipur, a new capital about 17 kilometres from the existing one.
The project would take shape with an investment of Rs 3,900 crore. Of the total investment, Rs 1,000 crore would be shared by the Centre and the state governments.The fund would be released through an instalment of Rs 200 crore every year. The remaining amount would be arranged through the public private partnership model.
The provision in the first supplementary budget was the first instalment of the state government for the project.
Besides, a provision of Rs 104.58 crore had been made in the supplementary budget for paying loan interest to the Reserve Bank of India. The state government had been taking loan from the apex bank for procuring paddy at the minimum support price (MSP).
In the kharif marketing season 2015-16, the state government had procured 5.8 million tonnes of paddy worth Rs 8,429 crore.
