India currently engaged in the largest planned urban development program: Puri

NEW DELHI: Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India, stated that India is undertaking the largest planned urbanisation programme in the world and that the total investments for urban development since 2014 have risen 10 folds to more than ₹18 lakh crore in comparison to the previous 10-year period.

He was speaking at the launch of the City Investments To Innovate, Integrate and Sustain challenge -CITIIS 2.0, which envisages fostering climate-sensitive planning in Indian cities and driving investments into urban climate action through specific projects.

“CITIIS 2.0 will complement the Smart Cities Mission and converge with the Swachh Bharat Mission to enable innovation throughout the value chain of waste management in our cities”, Puri said.

The total funding for CITIIS 2.0 includes a loan of ₹1,760 crores from Agence Francaise de Développement (AFD), a French development agency, and KfW Development Bank. The programme will also receive a technical assistance grant of ₹106 crores from the European Union.

While addressing the efforts towards achieving a circular economy in the urban areas, Puri said that the government has set up 112 biomethanation plants, 2,391 waste-to-compost plants, 55 waste-to-energy plants, 2,281 material recovery facilities, 972 construction and demolition waste management plants and 335 solid and liquid resource management plants under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).

Adding to it, he mentioned that the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and its second phase have made transformational progress in making cities water-secure. Also, the SBM –Urban 2.0, is making cities garbage-free and remediating all legacy waste in the country.