Announcement of 20 Smart Cities early January to mark the high point of new urban sector initiatives
Announcement of 20 Smart Cities early January to
mark the high point of new urban sector initiatives
Urban planning and development
approaches set on a new course in 2015
Over Rs.42,000 cr investment approved
in basic urban infrastructure and affordable housing
Competition among cities, gap analysis
based comprehensive planning, objective resource allocation introduced
The New Year 2016 is set to be a landmark in the annuls of urban development in
the country with the announcement of first batch of 20 Smart Cities early next
month besides the new initiatives of the Union Government under new urban
missions launched this year taking effect.
Evaluation of Smart City Plans of 97 cities in the second stage of ‘City
Challenge’ competition is already in progress and the results will be announced
shortly marking a high point in promoting competition among cities for resource
allocation, the first of its kind.
The Government has reset the parameters for urban planning in the year 2015 and
has approved an investment of about Rs.42,000 cr in 2015 for developing basic
urban infrastructure and for affordable housing alone. This includes Rs.19,170
cr for improving infrastructure relating to water supply, sewerage networks,
storm water drains, urban transport and open spaces in 474 cities in 18
states under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT),
launched in June this year.
Under another flagship programme of Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana (Urban), an
investment of over Rs.22,000 cr has been approved in 2015 for construction of
4.25 lakh houses for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in 227 cities in 11
states.
In the pursuit of enabling urban areas as more effective engines of high rate
of economic growth besides making them more livable, the Government has put an
end to ad-hocism in urban planning and resource allocation under new urban
sector initiatives.
Under AMRUT, a detailed infrastructure gap analysis has been made mandatory for
formulating Service Level Improvement Plans (SLIP) for each of the mission
cities for allocation of central assistance from out of the five year kitty of
Rs.50,000 cr. Unlike in the past, urban local bodies and state governments have
been empowered to appraise and approve projects with the Ministry of Urban
Development completely withdrawing from the same.
Both the urban ministries have selected cities for allocation of central
assistance based on objective criteria of total urban population and number of
statutory urban local bodies besides urban poor in each state ending discretion
and subjectivity, under new urban missions.
A new beginning has also been made towards ‘bottom up’ urban planning with
mandatory consultations with citizens and other stakeholders in identification
of projects and formulation of development plans under new urban missions.
While improvement of basic urban infrastructure is the objective of Atal
Mission, Smart City Mission adopts ‘area based development’ for enhancing
quality of living by addressing core infrastructure deficit and adoption of
smart solutions.
As against only Rs.38,000 cr provided as Central Assistance to states and urban
local bodies under 10 years of JNNURM, the Government has committed itself to
assist states to the tune of about Rs.4 lakh cr under AMRUT, Smart City Mission
and for construction of 2 crore houses for urban poor under PMAY(Urban).
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Approval for signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding between the Ministry of Urban Development and Bloomberg
Philanthropies to support the development of Smart Cities
The Union Cabinet under the Chairmanship of Prime
Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for signing of a Memorandum
of Understanding between the Ministry of Urban Development and Bloomberg
Philanthropies (BP), New York to support the development of Smart Cities.
The proposal entails Bloomberg Philanthropies to work as Knowledge Partner and support the development and execution of a Cities Challenge under the Smart Cities Mission. The Union Cabinet has already approved the Smart Cities Mission in its meeting held on 29th April 2015 and subsequently, the Prime Minister launched this Mission on 25th June 2015, when the Mission Statement and Guidelines were also released.
The Proposal under the Smart Cities Mission seeks to facilitate creation of quality urban infrastructure which will lead to improvement in the quality of urban life. Bloomberg Philanthropies Government Innovation Initiatives equip mayors and local leaders with practical tools and approaches to solve major challenges and enable public sector innovation to flourish.
As Knowledge Partner, Bloomberg Philanthropies will also support the Ministry of Urban Development in helping design and manage the cities challenge. There is no financial implication to the Government of India as the cost implications to the activities done in supporting the Mission will be incurred by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
The proposal entails Bloomberg Philanthropies to work as Knowledge Partner and support the development and execution of a Cities Challenge under the Smart Cities Mission. The Union Cabinet has already approved the Smart Cities Mission in its meeting held on 29th April 2015 and subsequently, the Prime Minister launched this Mission on 25th June 2015, when the Mission Statement and Guidelines were also released.
The Proposal under the Smart Cities Mission seeks to facilitate creation of quality urban infrastructure which will lead to improvement in the quality of urban life. Bloomberg Philanthropies Government Innovation Initiatives equip mayors and local leaders with practical tools and approaches to solve major challenges and enable public sector innovation to flourish.
As Knowledge Partner, Bloomberg Philanthropies will also support the Ministry of Urban Development in helping design and manage the cities challenge. There is no financial implication to the Government of India as the cost implications to the activities done in supporting the Mission will be incurred by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
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Memorandum of Understanding between SINTEF, Norway
and Central Public Works Department in the field of Recycling of Construction
and Demolition Waste
The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime
Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the signing of a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) between SINTEF, Norway and Central Public Works Department
(CPWD) for cooperation in the development of human resource capacity building
and scientific research in the field of Recycling of Construction and
Demolition (C&D) Waste in India.
Background:
On 2nd October, 2014 Hon'ble Prime Minister launched "Swachch Bharat Mission", a massive mass movement that seeks to create a clean India.
Construction industry in India generates about 10-12 million tons of waste annually. There is a huge demand of aggregates in the housing and road sectors but there is significant gap in demand and supply, which can be reduced to a certain extent by recycling C&D waste. While some of the items like bricks, tiles wood, metal, etc. are re-used and recycled, concrete and masonry, constituting about 50% of the C&D waste is not currently recycled in India.
Background:
On 2nd October, 2014 Hon'ble Prime Minister launched "Swachch Bharat Mission", a massive mass movement that seeks to create a clean India.
Construction industry in India generates about 10-12 million tons of waste annually. There is a huge demand of aggregates in the housing and road sectors but there is significant gap in demand and supply, which can be reduced to a certain extent by recycling C&D waste. While some of the items like bricks, tiles wood, metal, etc. are re-used and recycled, concrete and masonry, constituting about 50% of the C&D waste is not currently recycled in India.
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