Ministries ask for doubling of JNNURM funds

With a clear emphasis on upping the spend on infrastructure and social sector, the administrative ministries are seeking more than double the allocation of funds under the UPA government’s flagship Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission for the next fiscal. They have proposed an allocation of Rs 17,054 crore for the next fiscal as against Rs 6,890 crore allotted in Union Budget 2008-09. The urban development ministry and housing and poverty alleviation ministry, the nodal ministries for JNNURM, have asked the Planning Commission to considerably increase the funds for sectional heads under the scheme. Given the economic slowdown, the government is banking on JNNURM as one of the measures to stimulate demand by undertaking city-based infrastructure projects. In fact, the ministries have asked for a substantial hike in allocation of funds under subcomponents meant for non-mission cities.
The scheme has four components. The urban development ministry implements the two components, namely, Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) and Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme in Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT). Under UIG, the ministry has proposed allocation of funds to the tune of Rs 4,500 crore for the fiscal 2009-10 over Rs 3,513 crore that was allotted in the current fiscal. Whereas for UIDSMMT, aimed at infrastructure development of non-mission cities, the ministry has asked for Rs3,000 crore in the next fiscal, a jump of 240 per cent over Rs 881 crore that was allotted in the current fiscal 2008-09. Similarly, the housing and poverty alleviation ministry has proposed an allocation of Rs 3,101 crore under the JNNURM sub-component aimed at non-mission cities, IHSDP, an increase of around 400 per cent as compared to the funds provided in the current fiscal. For the BSUP component, the housing ministry has sought funding to the tune of Rs 6,452 crore over Rs 1,880 crore set aside in the Union Budget 2008-09.
The scheme for urban renewal and infrastructural development in select 63 cities, has already received an additional allocation of Rs 4,200 crore in the current fiscal under the first stimulus package announced in December last year. The move was aimed at providing a boost to the urban transport and the sagging automobile industry, enabling mission cities to replace the existing buses and place orders for new ones.