In a move to provide space to urbanising population, the Modi Government plans to develop eight new cities in a planned manner in the coming years. The 15th Finance Commission has recommended `8,000 crore performance-based grants for incubation of eight new cities in the country.
The Narendra Modi Government has accepted the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission, which has suggested a grant of ` 8,000 crore for incubation of eight new cities’ in the country.
According to Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, `8,000 crore has been allocated for incubation of eight new cities. This means `1,000 crore has been allocated for each city. The selection of cities will be done through competition and eight states to be qualified. The ministry will come up with detailed guidelines to this regard.
Mishra said that several new urban hubs have been developed Delhi-Mumbai corridor; Chennai-Bengaluru corridor and Bharatmala projects.
As per the ministry’s data, the number of towns cities have increased from 5,161 in 2001 to 7,935 in 2011. Of them, 53 have a population of over 1 million people. Post-Independence, several cities, Chandigarh, Bhuvaneshwar, Atal Nagar, New Raipur, Noida, Greater Noida, New Town Kolkata, Navi Mumbai, have been developed as new urban hubs.
The Modi Government has also taken up a project to develop 100 cities as smart city since 2015. All 100 cities have incorporated Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), City Level Advisory Forums (CLAF) and appointed Project Management Consultants (PMC) to appraise, approve, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate the projects.
According to the ministry, Of the total committed investments of `2,05,018 crore as per approved Smart Cities Plans, 5,331 smart city projects with a cost of `1,76,059 crore have been tendered so far. The work orders have been `1,39,969 crore and 2122 projects have been completed worth `34,986 crore among the 100 smart cities since the inception of Smart City Mission.
The 15th Finance Commission has allocated Rs 1.5 lakh crore in grants to urban local bodies (ULBs) in India for the next five years which is a 78 percent increase over last time.
“For the year 2021-22, a total budget allocation of `54,581 crores has been provided which `50,039 crores which was allocated during BE 2020-21.The budget provided for 2021-22 is 16.52% higher tha`46,790 crores during 2020-21,” the ministry said.