Expedite wastewater treatment projects in cities, panel tells MoHUA

Only 17% of sewerage and septage projects under AMRUT 2.0 completed: Panel

Five years after the government launched the second Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT 2.0), the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs has asked the ministry to expedite sewerage and septage management projects under the scheme, noting that less than a fifth of them have been completed so far.

 

“Out of 594 sewerage and septage management projects approved under AMRUT 2.0, with a total approved cost of ₹68,309 crore, only 104 projects (17.51 per cent) have been completed, while 398 projects (67 per cent) continue to remain under implementation,” the Standing Committee, chaired by Telugu Desam Party Member of Parliament Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, said in its report on Tuesday.

 

 

Further, although 502 projects have reached the awarded or grounded stage, 38 projects involving an approved cost of ₹7,564.03 crore are still pending at the tender stage, the committee noted. “The Committee notes that the pace of implementation of sewerage and septage management projects under AMRUT and AMRUT 2.0 remains slow, thereby delaying the intended expansion of sanitation infrastructure and improvement in urban sanitation outcomes,” the committee said.

 

The panel also found that the pace of release of funds under the scheme to states has been slow. “Against the total Central Assistance commitment of ₹66,059.53 crore under AMRUT and AMRUT 2.0, only ₹22,762.99 crore (34.46 per cent) has been released so far. The Committee observes that delays in such critical infrastructure projects can adversely affect the timely creation of treatment capacity, sewerage connectivity and septage management systems, particularly in rapidly urbanising areas,” the report said.

 

In its response to the committee, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said that multiple factors had led to the delay in outcomes and that it has a robust project monitoring mechanism. The factors include delays in tendering and procurement, land acquisition, statutory clearances, contractor-related issues, changes in project scope, integration with existing infrastructure, and limited technical capacity at the urban local body level. The ministry contended that such projects are typically long-gestation projects, requiring extensive Centre-state coordination.

 

“Therefore, the Committee recommends that the Ministry should establish stricter timelines for States/UTs for completion of sewerage and septage management projects by introducing milestone-based monitoring, particularly in view of the extended Mission period ending on March 31, 2027,” the report said. It also asked the ministry to identify areas where fund release is lagging.

 

AMRUT 2.0 was launched in October 2021 to provide universal coverage of water supply through functional taps to all households in all statutory towns in the country and coverage of sewerage and septage management in 500 cities covered under the first phase of the AMRUT scheme. The scheme's outlay at launch was nearly ₹3 trillion, including a Central outlay of ₹76,760 crore.