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Kochi seeks lower NURM classification

Staff Reporter

City will get more Central aid

KOCHI: The Kochi Corporation will approach the Union Ministry of Urban Development for including the city in category 3 of the National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM) project so as to get more Central assistance.

At present, the city has been placed in category 2, as it has one million plus population. Thiruvananthapuram, the other city from the State selected for the project, is in third category by virtue of being the capital city. The mission has classified cities with 4 million population as mega cities and placed them in category 1. "If the city is placed in category 3, we will get more support for various development projects in the city," said Mercy Williams, Kochi Mayor. While the Central support for the category 2 cities will be 50 per cent of the project cost, it will be 80 per cent for category 3. Ms. Williams is planning to plead the city's case before the Central authorities during her New Delhi visit. She will leave for New Delhi on December 2 to attend the launching of the NURM project by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on December 3.

The NURM has suggested the formation of an omnibus scheme— Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns— for meeting the infrastructure development needs of cities and towns that are not in the list of cities selected for the mission project.

The omnibus scheme will take care of the integrated development of small and medium towns, accelerated urban water supply programme and urban reform incentive fund administered by the Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation.

The Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana and National Slum Development Programme will be combined by the Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty alleviation and a new scheme— Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme— to cover cities and towns outside the mission programme. Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram cities have been selected for support under the Rs.5,000-crore NURM project.

It is the Urban Development Minister that is heading the national steering group of the NURM project. A State-level steering committee headed by the State Chief Minister will also be formed to decide on the projects and priorities of the cities for inclusion in the programme. The State-level committee will have Mayors or chairpersons of cities and MPs and MLAs of concerned cities as the members in addition to the Government Secretaries of Public Health Engineering, Finance, Housing and Urban Development.

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