The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Corporation told to prioritise projects

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 27, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Corporation told to prioritise projects

Staff Reporter

Assistance under urban renewal project

KOCHI: The Corporation council has been asked to prioritise its schemes to get funds from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) project.

The Corporation should also prepare detailed project reports of the infrastructure and basic service projects proposed to be implemented using the Mission funds.

The projects thus prepared by the civic bodies would be scrutinised by the State and Central committees of the Mission for funding. These issues were discussed at a regional workshop of the Mission project in Bangalore on Tuesday. Mercy Williams, Mayor; S. Sudarsanan, Corporation secretary and Vineeta Hariharan, urban planner, HUDCO, represented Kochi Corporation at the meeting.

"The Kochi Corporation is in the process of completing the master plan document, which essentially is the city development plan. Most of the civic bodies which attended the Bangalore workshop have not even made any attempts in this direction," said Prof. Williams.

The preparation of a city development plan is one of the prerequisites for availing of assistance from the Mission project. Barring power, health and education, funds will be available for all infrastructure and basic services such as sewerage and transport sectors, she said.

The Mission authorities have directed the Kochi Corporation officials to include components such as City Investment Plan and Institutional Profiling in the master plan, which is being prepared by the civic body.

Under the investment plan, the civic body would have to take stock of its financial dealings, including expenditure, income, budgetary provisions and factors related to the financial planning of the Corporation. The civic body can seek the support of firms empanelled by the Mission authorities for these activities, the Corporation officials said.

The Mission project, with the initial fund of Rs.5,000 crores, aims to provide financial assistance to 63 cities across the country, for providing basic infrastructural facilities. Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram have been selected from the State for receiving financial assistance from the project. The Mission authorities reiterated the need for a City Development Plan for obtaining financial support from the programme.

They also rejected a few project proposals forwarded by the Bangalore Corporation for funding before the preparation of the City Development Plan, pointed out Corporation authorities.

The Corporations were asked to seek private-public participation to raise funds for the project. Some of the projects identified by Babu Jacob, advisor to the State Government for the development of Kochi, were presented at the workshop. The State Government and the Corporations will implement a set of mandatory reforms for getting assistance from the project, said Mr. Sudarsanan.

Under the Mission programme, 25 per cent of the funds will be released for the approved projects in the first phase. More payments will be made after evaluating the progress of the projects.

Private investment

The civic bodies were also directed to attract private investment to fund the projects.

The Mission will fund 50 per cent of the project cost and the State Government will fund 30 per cent.

The civic body will have to raise the remaining 20 per cent. While implementing the projects, the thrust will be to provide basic services to the poor, Mr. Sudarsanan said.

The Corporations can also explore the possibility of private investments in the form of Build Operate and Transfer or Build Own and Operate modes for its projects.

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