New Delhi: Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday claimed that his government will complete 2,069 projects worth Rs 70,811.16 crore of India’s smart city mission by June next year.
“We have set June 2024 as the timeline to complete the smart city projects and we are confident that we will be able to complete it,” said Puri while replying to a query raised by ETV Bharat on the new deadline set up by Housing Ministry to compete all projects under Modi government’s mega smart city mission.
Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Koushal Kishore has told in the monsoon session of the Parliament that as of July 7, work orders have been issued by 100 Smart Cities in 7,978 projects of which 5,909 projects (74 per cent) have been completed.
The Government of India launched the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) on June 25, 2015. At least 100 Smart Cities have been selected through four rounds of competition from January 2016 to June 2018. As per SCM guidelines, the Central Government will provide financial support to the extent of Rs 48,000 crore over five years to the 100 Smart Cities on an average of Rs 100 crore per city per year. An equal amount on a matching basis will be contributed by the state government and Urban Local Body (ULB). This ratio is 90:10 in the case of the Northeast and hilly states.
Puri was talking to the reporters about the efforts done by the Central government towards the transformation of the urban landscape from 2014-2023. Puri said that the investments in the urban sector have seen a significant rise from Rs 1,78,053 crore (2004-2014) to Rs 18,07,101 crore ( 2014 onwards). The Minister reiterated the indomitable will and resolve of the government towards the growth and development of the urban sector in India.
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Puri highlighted the progress made under the Swachh Bharat Mission. He said that the mission has led to 100 per cent access to toilets with the construction of 67.10 lakh household toilets and 6.52 lakh community and public toilet seats. “The mission has led to a four-fold increase in waste processing from 18 per cent in 2014 to 75.20 per cent in 2023,” he said.
Drawing attention to the achievements under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U), Puri informed that so far, the scheme has achieved a milestone of sanctioning 1.19 crore houses. “More than 113 lakh houses have been grounded for construction of which 76.34 lakh have been completed and delivered to the beneficiaries,” he said.
He highlighted that the mission promotes women's empowerment by providing the title of houses in the name of female members or in the joint name. More than 94 lakh houses under PMAY-U are in the name of women or joint ownership, he said. Stating that his government is using the latest technologies to build the projects and houses under PMAY-U, Puri said that 54 new technologies have been identified through a global challenge process and these are used in the construction of various lighthouse projects.
Referring to the outcomes of various initiatives undertaken towards strengthening urban transport, Puri said that about 872 km of metro lines are operational in 20 different cities with an average daily ridership of 85 Lakhs as of today
Puri also said that “PM-eBus Sewa”, a scheme recently approved by the cabinet for augmenting city bus operation by 10,000 e-buses on a public-private partnership (PPP) model. “All the States and URs have been asked for their requirements and accordingly all the buses will be distributed in the next 5-6 months,” said Puri.
MoHUA secretary Manoj Joshi who was also present in the programme talked about the recommendations of a committee constituted under the chairmanship of Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa to recommend ways to complete the legacy stalled real estate projects.
The committee which submitted its report to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on August 21 suggested mandatory registrations with the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA), execution of registration and sublease deeds for all occupied units, occupancy and possession of all substantially completed projects, a proposal for State government’s rehabilitation package among others.
Regarding financing of stalled projects, the committee recommended that financing for completing the projects may be treated as priority financing and SWAMIH fund should proactively provide finance for completing these stalled projects.
