The Hindu : Front Page : Focus on urban renewal: Manmohan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 22, 2006

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Focus on urban renewal: Manmohan

Special Correspondent

Municipal administration should be freed from the cancer of corruption, land mafia

MUMBAI: People need better urban governance and a more responsive and transparent urban administration. Also, municipal administration should be freed from the cancer of corruption and the stranglehold of land mafias.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday made these observations at the inaugural ceremony of the Mumbai Metro Rail Project.

Dr. Singh said new and innovative mechanisms must be found to raise resources for efficient and equitable financing of the municipal public services. People must become more pro-active and participate in urban governance. "We cannot impose reforms from above."

Improving quality of life

Pointing out that urban renewal was not just about flyovers, metros, high-speed buses and subways, he said: "It is basically about improving the quality of life of all citizens in urban areas, especially the poor."

The Jawaharlal National Urban Renewal Mission of the United Progressive Alliance Government, under which Rs. 50,000 crore had been committed for the next five years, was "intended to make our cities more liveable and people-friendly."

As per rough estimates, urban areas accounted for between 50 and 60 per cent of the country's GDP. They would be home to almost a third of the nation's population in a few years.

Engines of growth

The Prime Minister rued that these areas had "suffered from years of neglect." They must be seen as engines of growth, he said.

The Maharashtra Government should make efforts to get all assistance from the Centre. The Mission covered Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and Nanded.

Moots unified authority

Dr. Singh suggested the constitution of a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority, a coordination agency for efficient integration of all modes of transport that a large city would typically need.

Union Minister for Urban Development S. Jaipal Reddy said the Maharashtra Government should scrap the Urban Land Ceiling and Rent Control Acts.

Mr. Reddy wanted the State to reduce stamp duties too.

The first segment of the Mumbai Metro Rail system would fetch viability gap funding from the Central Government to the tune of 20 per cent of the project cost, said Mr. Reddy.

(Viability gap funding means funds or grants given by the Government for a project when its viability is not certain and when it can take a long time to build, to run and to reach the break-even stage.)

The Government was providing Rs. 500 crore for the Rs. 2356-crore project, he said.

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