With the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) failing to yield desired results in the seven years of its existence, Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath on Tuesday attributed shortage of skilled manpower to be the reason behind the slow progress of the UPA’s flagship programme launched with much fanfare.
Kicked-off in 2005, the phase I of the programme ended in March last year, but it has been extended for next two years till 2014 to ensure completion of all the projects sanctioned under the Mission. Of the 559 projects worth Rs 67,000 crore in 65 mission cities sanctioned, only 127 projects have been completed while for smaller towns, only 142 out of a total 808 sanctioned projects have seen light of the day till March 31, 2012.
“JNNURM was launched by the Government on December 3, 2005, envisaging an investment of more than Rs 1,00,000 crore. It is a reform-driven, fast track programme to ensure planned development of identified cities with focus on efficiency in urban infrastructure and service delivery mechanisms. “But lack of professionalism has affected successful implementation of the scheme in some States,” Kamal Nath said at ‘RICS International Conference 2013’ here on Wednesday.
While claiming that India’s growth momentum is continuing and investment in the infrastructure sector has grown phenomenally, the Minister noted that the challenges were profound.
“There are some constraints like land prices, anomalies in Floor Area Ratio (FAR) in smaller cities, archaic laws etc that hinder the growth,” he said.
“Public Private Partnership (PPP) model has been adopted in giving shape to many projects to trigger growth, he said adding that efficient land economics, regulatory reforms and India-specific best practices are important to make India a global real estate destination.
The JNNRUM has already drawn flak from the CAG which in its recent report had, while referring to various deficiencies, pointed out that the ministries of the Central Government were not equipped to monitor a project of JNNURM’s magnitude.
The report said that against an allocation of Rs 66,084.66 crore by the Planning Commission, the Central Government had only made an allocation of Rs 37,070.15 crore of which only Rs 32,934.59 crore had been released by March 31, 2011.