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| Chhattisgarh builds new capital with loans & grants |
| R Krishna Das / Kolkata/ Raipur Dec 25, 2009, 00:06 IST |
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Chhattisgarh's new hi-tech capital city will take shape without spending a penny out of the state exchequer. The Rs 4000-crore capital project that will witness the formation and evolution of a world class city in the name "Naya Raipur"- a greenfield city- will come up with the loans and grants sanctioned from the different funding agencies.
"The move is aimed to avoid any burden on the state exchequer or public money," state's Chief Secretary and Chairman of Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) P Joy Oommen told Business Standard. The efforts have yielded the desired results as the project got off without using a single penny of public money, he added.
Naya Raipur, the administrative capital of Chhattisgarh, would be developed as an eco-friendly city in about 8,000 hectares of land-- about 20 kilometres from the existing capital city between two national highways -- NH6 and NH 43. The urban design of the new city will incorporate the best of international cities as well as traditional Chhattisgarh culture.
The first phase of the project to house a population of 1,50,000 people is likely to be completed in 2011. "Naya Raipur would become a model and a source of inspiration for city planners, architects, builders and policy makers anywhere in the world," Oommen said. Equally, the funding for the mammoth project had set a precedent with the authorities committing not to put any burden on the state exchequer. Even as fund started flowing as loans and grants, the NRDA did not require using a single penny out of state exchequer or divert fund from other heads for the project.
"The presentation of the project before the Union government resulted in the inclusion of Naya Raipur under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)," L K Panigrahi, Chief Engineer (projects) of NRDA, said. With the inclusion, the city will have access to JNNURM funds for its infrastructure development.
The NRDA received an interest free loan of Rs 500 crore from the state government. Interestingly, the authority had re-paid Rs 67 crore. Besides, fund had been given by the 12th Finance Commission while Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) had sanctioned a loan of Rs 550 crore. Just two days ago, World Bank had sanctioned a loan of Rs 66 crore to take up Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in the Naya Raipur. "This is the rarest case when an upcoming city has been funded by the World Bank for BRTS," Panigrahi said.
The NRDA would re-pay the loans and interest by getting premium from the land sold to government and semi-government establishments in the new capital.
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