The State-level Technical Committee of the Urban Administration and Development Department which met for the first time here has approved the proposed formation of Project Development and Management Consultancy (PDMC) for implementation of Centre’s Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) Mission, officials stated.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary, Urban Administration and Development Department R P Mandal.
The PDMC would prepare projects under AMRUT Mission for providing 100 per cent water supply facility to the houses, greening of cities and on sewage water management after inviting tenders and later also monitoring the project work.
The Consultancy unit would have experts for each sector of work to the taken up for the Mission.
Notably, last month, the Centre had released the first installment of Rs55.29 crore out of the approved Rs573.40 crore for State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) under AMRUT project for the current financial year in Chhattisgarh.
The Union Ministry of Urban Development has already released Central Assistance of Rs1,062.27 crore to 13 States as first installment under AMRUT project for the current financial year, officials stated.
This is a part of total Central Assistance of Rs5,311.38 crore committed to 13 States for which the Ministry has approved Atal Mission Action Plans for 2015-16 entailing total investment of Rs11,671.76 cr in 286 cities in these States.
The Ministry has so far cleared a total of 939 projects for 286 cities with most of them related to water supply and sewerage network services.
AMRUT project launched in June this year aims at ensuring water supply connections and sewer connections to all urban households in 500 mission cities besides supplying water at the norm of 135 litres per capita per day, on priority. Under this mission, construction of storm water drains, promotion of non-motorised urban transport, provision of parks and green spaces also will be supported.
Under the Mission, Central assistance is provided based on an objective criteria giving equal weightage to the total urban population and number of statutory urban bodies in each state. Total central assistance of Rs50,000 crore has been provisioned under the mission for 5 years. Central assistance is upto 50 per cent of project costs for cities with population of less than 10 lakhs each and up to one-third for cities with population above 10 lakhs each.
Notably, as many as nine districts of Chhattisgarh have been identified for AMRUT project.
The purpose of AMRUT is to ensure that every household has access to a tap with assured supply of water and a sewerage connection, increase in amenity value of cities by developing greenery and well maintained open spaces (parks) and reduce pollution by switching to public transport or constructing facilities for non-motorized transport (like walking and cycling).
Districts identified for AMRUT mission are-- Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg, Bhilai, Rajnandgaon, Korba, Raigarh, Ambikapur and Jagdalpur, said officials sources.
As per a detailed note issued by the Union Urban Development Ministry, out of the 9 States under consideration, there is total convergence of housing, AMRUT and Smart City Missions in respect of Chhattisgarh (2 smart and 9 Amrut cities), Jammu & Kashmir (1 and 3), Kerala (1 and 7), MP (7 and 32), Odisha (2 and 9), Rajasthan (4 and 28), Telangana (2 and 11).
This in effect means, 25 of the 26 smart cities in these 9 states are also covered under AMRUT and Housing missions as well and 123 AMRUT cities under housing mission, it stated.
Only in case of Gujarat, there is a degree of deviation. One of the 6 smart city aspirants identified only Dahod does not figure in the 30 cities and towns so far identified for housing projects. 11 of 30 Amrut cities viz.,Bolad, Godhra,Goudal,Jamnagar, Junagadh,Nadiad, Morvi,Palanpur, Porbandar,Veravel and Surendranagar-Dudhrej are still to be included in the housing list, officials stated.