Cities will have to prove their worth to be the part of the Government’s much ambitious schemes like 100 Smart Cities and Heritage City projects announced by the Modi Government last year. “We will be launching City Challenge campaign for selecting cities and towns for participation in Smart City and 500 Cities initiatives soon,” Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu said at the consultative workshop on urban governance for municipal commissioners of Northern States in the Capital here.
He made it clear that the “business as usual” approach will not help anymore and there has to be a radical reorientation of mindsets on the part of all those concerned with management of urban affairs. Elaborating on the new initiative, Naidu said that all cities and towns seeking to participate in these schemes will be profiled based on specific parameters that have a bearing on their ability to address issues of governance reforms, resource mobilisation, execution etc.
He further said, “While addressing the issue of geographical spread, only the deserving will be assisted.” Asking the urban civic bodies to “perform and become credit worthy”, he said, “the emerging opportunities could be made use of effectively if only necessary initiatives were taken in right earnest.” The Minister also pulled up the civic bodies for the “dismal” state of affairs in urban areas, saying that they will have to bring in radical changes in functioning to be “creditworthy” for selection in the urban renewal project.
Naidu favoured Private Public Participation (PPP)in the urban development programmes. “There is a requirement of huge resources such as Rs40 lakh crore investment for provision of infrastructure in urban areas besides another Rs20 lakh crore for operation and maintenance of urban assets and utilities over a 20-year period,” he added.
“The desired resource mobilisation through lending and other means will depend on credit worthiness of urban local bodies. We need to enable them to become creditworthy,” he said. Minister of State for Urban Development Babul Supriyo urged the States/UTs and urban local bodies to be pro-active in the implementation of new initiatives. He also voiced concern over the performance reported under housing, skill development, infrastructure provision under JNNURM across the States.