Urban renewal projects behind schedule

The Union Urban Development Ministry has set a target of sanctioning projects worth Rs 20,000 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) within the current fiscal.

These excludes the rapid transport and metro railway development projects under the JNNURM, Union Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy said. The Centre has already sanctioned projects worth Rs 10,000 crore under JNNURM in different parts of the country till date, Reddy said.

The projects sanctioned were mainly in Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore, he said.

The projects also include development of tier I and II cities, Reddy said.

Under the JNNURM , government is giving priority to development of drinking water facilities in the cities.

"With urbanisation picking up and poor people moving to cities in search of higher pay, drinking water is a necessity. We need to provide drinking water facilities to these people apart from providing low cost houses," Reddy said.

JNNURM is also giving priority to urban sanitation programmes. "In India only 26 per cent of the houses are connected to sewerage systems. We need to improve the sewerage systems of the cities in our country," he said.

Under the JNNURM, the UPA government had proposed to spend Rs 1,00,000 crore in the next six years to develop urban areas in the country.

The JNNURM corpus includes Rs 50,000 crore grant from the Centre and a matching grant of Rs 50,000 crore by the state governments and urban local bodies.

The Union Urban Development Ministry has divided the cities into mega cities and small cities depending on the population size for implementing the project. Reddy said only 30 per cent of the people in the country live in urban areas as against 60 per cent in Britain.

"We have to go a long way to reach the urbanisation standards of Britain. The JNNURM project is aiming at increasing the urbanisation standards of the country since urbanisation is considered as an index for development," he said.

Reddy was speaking on the sidelines of a seminar on 'Indian Civil Engineering Scenario in the new millennium -- Opportunities and Challenges" organised by Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur.

West Bengal's Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Asok Bhattacharya said the state is expecting project sanctions worth Rs 3,000 crore under the JNNURM within the current fiscal.

Bhattacharya said the state has already received sanctions worth Rs 1850 crore under JNNURM till now.

The Centre would be providing 35 to 50 per cent of the funds for the projects.

The projects include slum, sewerage and sanitation development works in and around the city of Kolkata, Bhattacharya said.

Bhattacharya claimed that land reforms by the state government had led to formation of many tier I and II cities in the state, which also needs to be developed.

Earlier, the state government had announced the construction of 200,000 dwelling units for the city's urban poor, with a 24-month roll-out plan.

Bhattacharya said 60,000 low-cost houses have already been sanctioned and another 40,000 are in the pipeline.

He added that the stocks would be ramped up to 200,000 by 2009. "The fast pace of urbanisation throws up its own challenges and problems, which we can't ignore. Our effort to create housing for the economically-weaker sections (EWS) with the help of the private sector is one way of easing stress on the city's core infrastructure."

Each of the dwelling units will be around 22 sq m in plinth and cost between Rs 80,000 and a lakh, depending on the location. Bhattacharya called upon the private sector to also actively participate in infrastructure creation to address the "alarming urban sprawl" in the peripheral areas.

The Bengal chapter of Credai, the apex body of developers, has agreed to create this housing stock for the city's urban poor on a "no-profit" basis.

The state hopes that a large portion of JNNURM funds would be spent towards the social housing scheme. The government has already received a couple of proposals from private companies "" one for a flyover in south Calcutta and another for a bus rapid transport system on the Kalyani Expressway.