81 cities to invest over Rs 5700 cr in water, sewerage system

NEW DELHI, November 16: Eighty-one cities in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Mizoram will invest over Rs 5700 crore to enhance basic infrastructure including water supply and sewerage connections. The investments will be made under Atal Mission for Rejuventation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) action plans for the current year. An inter-ministerial apex committee headed by Urban Development Secretary Madhusudan Prasad has approved state annual action plans (SAAP) of these five states which account for 81 mission cities to undertake investment of Rs 5,748 cr for improving drinking water supply and sewerage system. Central assistance will be provided to an extent of Rs 2,440 cr while the rest would be contributed by state governments and urban local bodies, said a senior UD Ministry official. With about half of the urban households in these 81 cities not having water supply and sewerage connections, Rs 4,290 cr of the total approved outlay would go into providing household water supply connections and enhancing water supply in 53 cities. While Rs 1,133 cr would be spent on providing sewerage connections in 41 cities, Rs 92 cr would be invested in storm water drainage projects in 14 cities, Rs 80 crore for promoting non-motorised public transport in 22 and Rs 113 cr for providing parks and green spaces in 76 mission cities. State annual action plans of each state is formulated by integrating Service Level Improvement Plans (SLIP) of each AMRUT city in respective state. SLIP of each mission city is evolved after a detailed analysis of gaps in basic infrastructure. Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation launched in July seeks to ensure coverage of all urban households with water supply and sewerage connections besides ensuring water supply at 135 litres per capita per day on priority. In these five states, extent of coverage of urban households with water supply connections ranged from 6 percent in Chaas (Jharkhand) to 59 percent in Balasore (Odisha). Only 7 cities in Madhya Pradesh - Chindwara, Khandwa, Mandsaur, Khargone, Neemuch, Betul and Dewas, the coverage is between 59 percent and 74 percent. No sewerage connection is available in half of the Mission cities, while in the rest the coverage is in the range of 3 percent in Ratlam (MP) to 62 percent in Indore. Under the SAAP approved for 2015-16 for improving basic infrastructure, Tamil Nadu with 27 AMRUT cities would invest Rs 3,249 cr followed by MP (32 cities)- Rs 1,656 cr, Odisha (9 cities)- Rs 456 cr, Jharkhand (7 cities)- Rs 313 cr and Mizoram will invest Rs 73 cr in the lone mission city of Aizawl. UD Ministry earlier approved SAAP for 2015-16 with a total project investment of Rs 2,786 cr for Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh which account for 89 cities. Accordingly, AMRUT action plans for 8 states accounting for 170 mission cities stand approved with a total project expenditure of Rs 8,534 cr for improving basic infrastructure. A total of 500 cities and towns with a population of one lakh and above each besides capitals and hill stations and those of tourism importance and locates on the stem of main river are included in Atal Mission.