The state government has decided to step up the pace of urbanisation. It is now planning to develop 55 cities and small towns of Bihar under the proposed Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission – Phase 2 (JNNURM-II). For this, the state government has asked for New Delhi's help.
"We have the least urban area in the country," said Bihar Urban Development Minister Prem Kumar, "that's why Bihar needs massive investment in urban development. The rate of urbanisation in Bihar is still at decimal 11 percent. This means, we have a massive backlog and we need special attention to cover up the gap."
For this, the government has set it eyes on the proposed JNNURM-II. The Bihar government is now making plans and detailed project reports (DPRs) for these cities and towns in advance.
The Minister said, "For this, we have decided to be pro-active. We are making Master Plans and DPRs well in advance, so that we can get what we want. We are decided to develop our 11 cities, 42 small and medium towns and two international destinations, namely Bodh Gaya and Rajgir under the proposed JNNURM-II."
The state government hopes that the center will soon announce this proposed urban development programme. "We were hoping the PM will announce it on 15th August, however that did not happened. We are hoping the center will announce this scheme."
JNNURM was introduced on 2005-06 for seven years. Its goal was to upgrade social and economic infrastructure of cities and create economically productive, efficient and responsive cities. However, the programme had little effect on the urbanisation of Bihar. "We missed the JNNURM bus. There are various reasons for it. We were not technically ready. There were shortages of engineers and town planners in our department. The central government also favoured Jharkhand and other states over us. But we are now not willing to be caught unaware," Kumar said.
Under JNNURM-2, the central government will spend more than US$ 40 Billions to cover its infrastructure deficit and manage massive urbanisation programmes.
The major focus will be on water, sewage and transportation under the proposed programme.
