Towards Atmanirbhar Cities

Hardeep S Puri *

From 2004 to 2014, the total expenditure on urban development in 10 years was around Rs 1.57 lakh crore. Over the past six years, this figurehas been Rs 10.57 lakh crore. A 2010 Mckinsey & Company report estimates that by 2030, 40 per cent of our population or 590 million Indians are expected to live in cities.

To cater to this growing urban population, India has to build 700-900 million square meters of urban space every year until 2030- a new Chicago every year from now till 2030 to meet our urban demands, which also means 70% of India of the future is yet to be built. The challenge, and opportunity, is not onlyto transform our cities into robust economic behemoths but to also improve the living conditions for millions of Indians over the next decade.

On December 2, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath attended the bell ceremony at the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai, as municipal bonds worth Rs. 200 crores were listed for issuance for the Lucknow Municipal Corporation. The issuance was oversubscribed 2.25 times and at a yield rate of 8.5%, it is the second lowest rate for a municipal issuance in the country.

Lucknow has now become the 9thcity across India to raise municipal bonds and the first from North India since the launch of Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Transformation (AMRUT) mission. LMC will get approximately 26 cr as an upfront incentive of around 2% to subsidise its interest burden from the Union Government. Till now over Rs 3690 crores has been raised by 9 cities andmany more cities are in the process of doing so.

This will help improve financial and municipal governance, orient the city towards self-sufficiency or Atmanirbharta and provide the necessary support for developing civic infrastructure. From earlier times when municipal corporations were bankrupt, had no wherewithal or capacity to raise funds, had little inclination or capability to collect taxes and had extremely low service delivery standards, the demonstrated capacity to float municipal bonds and raise finances represents a sea-change.

Led by the Hon’ble PM’s foresight and vision, the programmatic and policy interventions of the Union Government have aimed to improve the holistic well-being of our citizens living in urban centres. The Central government’s missions focus on building capacity amongst our Urban Local Bodies while leveraging new technologies and creating market finance accessibilityfor our cities.

AMRUT Mission has proven to be a critical driver of our efforts. It has consolidated the emerging potential for development presented by the success of other missions under MoHUA. Onecrucial reform has been the Credit Rating of Mission cities.

This reform has been taken up on the rationale that Urban Local Bodies of Mission cities need to raise funds from additional sources, including borrowings from Capital Markets or Private Investors for financing different urban improvement projects. The credit rating exercise also leveraged the help of partners like the US Treasury Department and SEBI Municipal Bonds Advisory Council, which has brought in dedicated expertise and global perspective.

Till date, credit rating work for 485 AMRUT cities have been commissioned, of which the job has been completed for 469 cities. Out of these, 163 cities have received Investible Grade Rating (IGR), including 36 cities with a rating of A- or above, spread across 12 States/ UTs. Incentivising issuance of municipal bonds by ULBs is encouraging them to raise financial resources which will help in improving the necessary civic infrastructure, build local expertise and provide new avenues from public-private cooperation.

Such milestones on the urbanization front cannot be looked at in silos, because our approach has always been networked. Apart from work beingundertaken to create market finance accessible for Indian cities, we have made Online Building Permission System (OBPS) operational in 2057 cities, tofacilitate Ease of Doing Business in Construction Permits through paperless approvals and issuance of building permissions.

To further build capacity, The Urban Learning Internship Programme (TULIP) and Smart Cities Innovation Challenge have also been introduced.As a result, India’s rank in Ease of Doing Business in construction permits has recorded anunprecedented jump of 158 spots in last three years as per latest World Bank Doing Business Report (DBR) from 185 in 2017 to 27 in 2020.

The Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs) built under SCM are being used as Crisis Management Rooms in 47 cities. This has become a strong example of how we can leverage technological solutions like GIS mapping and telemedicine services to tackle such future public health emergencies. Covid-19 pandemic brought the narrative of cleanliness to within the four walls of a household, and to the individual level.

Thankfully, the Swachh Bharat Mission has generated and sustained behavioural change in people through programmatic interventions and citizen-led networks. As a result, it has today transformed from a government-led initiative to a ‘Jan Andolan’, a people’s movement. Our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, had predicted this transformation in 2014 when he launched the Swachh Bharat Mission, stating ‘Na gandagikarenge, Na karnedenge.’

The urbanization plan, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government had embarked on, preempted solutions to many dire situations that arose out of the pandemic. We will continue to work with different stakeholders across the board to build a holistic and sustainable Urban India over the next decade. We will continue to make our cities more self-sufficient, capable and independent, as our infrastructure needs continue to grow.

As the above programmatic interventions mature, guaranteeing a dignified, safe and healthy future for all our citizens, the best is yet to come.