The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Look beyond planned finance, urban local bodies told

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Sunday, Mar 02, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Look beyond planned finance, urban local bodies told

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: M. Ramachandran, Urban Development Secretary to the Union Government, has called upon urban local bodies to mobilise funds for development outside “planned finance programmes” such as Budget, grants and government programmes.

He was speaking at a seminar on “Financial Leveraging for Urban Development” organised by the Union Bank of India here on Saturday.

Mr. Ramachandran said that the country’s urban development planning had to be done on a single platform taking into consideration local needs.

The estimate for eight important programmes pertaining to water supply, drainage, solid waste management, roads, streetlight, transport infrastructure and so on was to the tune of 1, 27,000 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). That kind of money was difficult to get from “planned finance.”

Hence it was imperative that private initiatives played a greater role in augmenting funds, he said.

Bonds

The urban local bodies were free to float bonds and other investment opportunities to finance their projects.

They could also go in for help from the market individually or collectively, he said.

As part of the Eleventh Five Year Plan, the Government was planning to take up 315 urban development projects in 63 cities and towns under JNNURM, he said. Mr. Ramachandran said that cities could not do without an efficient mass transport system. He suggested setting up of a United Metropolitan Transport Authority.

Later, at a joint press conference, chairman of the Union Bank of India M.V. Nair said that banks, either as a consortium or individually, could help urban development projects under JNNURM. Mr. Nair said the Union Bank of India could also chip in a substantial volume of investment in JNNURM projects.

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