AMRUT Action Plans for 81 cities approved with total project outlay of 5748 crore rupees

An inter-ministerial Apex Committee on 16 November 2015 approved State Annual Action Plans (SAAP) of 81 mission cities in 5 states-Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Mizoram under AMRUT for 2015-16.

The meeting of the committee was headed by Madhusudan Prasad, Secretary, Union Ministry of Urban Development, which is the nodal ministry for implementation of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).

As per the approved SAAPs, the Union, State governments and urban local bodies together will invest 5748 crore rupees. Out of this, Central assistance will be provided to an extent of 2440 crore rupees.

And, Out of the five states, Tamil Nadu with 27 AMRUT cities would invest 3249 crore followed by Madhya Pradesh (32 cities)-1,656 crore, Odisha (9 cities)-456 crore, Jharkhand (7 cities)-313 crore and Mizoram will invest 73 crore rupees in the lone mission city of Aizawl.

Breakup of Funds Allocation

With this approval, number of cities covered under AMRUT went up to 170 across 8 states with a total project expenditure of 8534 crore rupees.

Earlier, on 22 October 2015, SAAPs were approved for 89 cities in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh with a total investment of 2786 crore rupees.

The recent approval of 81 SAAPs in 5 states is significant because

• About half of the urban households in these 81 cities do not have water supply and sewerage connections
• 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 and 74 percent.
• No sewerage connections are 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.