Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | NXg | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Scope for development: A file photo of Mattancherry in Kochi. The JNNURM envisages developments of slums such as this one.

That is when he said, “The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission is a city-based programme. It will seek to build the capacity of our cities for management. Cities have the financial muscle and the technical resources to rebuild themse lves. We see the governance reform-related proposal in the mission for a participation law and a disclosure law, as enabling the cities to locate the needed human and financial resources for improving their services. This is a major reform for the governance of our cities.”

The mission seeks to build new cities out of the old, to renew and sustain whatever is good in the urban environment and build new ones that will last and serve the coming generations.

Given the scope of the ambitious project, the mission is the single-most important effort by the government to rebuild cities, improve the quality of urban life and make these developments sustainable.

For one, it puts people at the centre of planning new urban developments. The community will come first and it is a major diversion from considerations that have, in the past, led urban development away from the needs of the people.

The mission statement is: “The aim is to encourage reforms and fast-track planned development of identified cities. Focus is to be on efficiency in urban infrastructure and service delivery mechanisms, community participation, and accountability of ULBs/Parastatal agencies [urban local bodies] towards citizens.”

With people at the centre of planning, efficiency of service delivery and better accountability will have a lasting impact on the way urban bodies work. By drawing the community into the planning and implementing processes, it will break the opaque covers that have protected inefficiency so far.

The fact that about 285 million people (28 per cent of the total 1,027 million people) in India live in urban areas is in itself a strong statement for the requirement for launching such an ambitious mission.

The projections are that the speedy process of liberalisation and a booming economy will increase the proportion of the urban population to about 40 per cent of the population by 2021.

Given better quality of life and sufficient infrastructure, urban areas will account for 65 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2011.

And, according to government estimates, the urban sector in the country will require an investment of Rs. 1,20,536 crore over the next seven years — an annual funding requirement of Rs. 17,219 crore.

The government has linked the need for these voluminous investments to reforms in the urban administration, making more efficient urban service delivery a priority. This objective has been linked to the 74th Constitution amendment whereby local bodies have been given great powers.

Expansion of social housing in urban areas, addressing the needs of slum-dwellers and meeting the millennium development goals have all been given due consideration while drawing up the JNNURM. A senior government official connected with urban planning sums up what the mission holds for Kochi. The mission can change the face of Kochi.

It can change the way urban local bodies have worked so far.

The scope of the mission is limitless and only our imagination can hold us back, says the official pointing to the reported progress made by urban local bodies elsewhere in the country.

He says that we should take a cue from urban bodies elsewhere in the country which have been quite quick in realising the potential of the mission.

Any statement about the potential of the mission to change the urban landscape should be considered with the vast amount of resources that has been commandeered to serve the project. With near limitless resources before them, urban administrators must now seize the opportunity.

From better accounting of the urban administrative operations to unclogging drains, the mission seeks to revamp everything we have so far known about our urban entities.

The planning official says that with the proposed reforms in administration and accounting, the work in urban local bodies will become more transparent.

The seriousness of the Union government in realising these monumental changes is evident from the coordination among the Union Ministry of Urban Development and Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation, the Planning Commission as well as the State governments and urban local bodies, all of which must be deeply involved to bring about lasting and meaningful changes.

Deputy Mayor of Kochi C.K. Manishankar says that the City Corporation authorities are fully aware of the opportunities being offered by the mission.

The Corporation is mentally geared up to the challenges ahead of it, he says.

Given the intricacies involved in planning and implementing a project in Kochi, the Corporation has made good progress so far, Mr. Manishankar says.

He points to the progress made at Brahmapuram where a solid- waste management facility is being readied as one of the first of a series of big projects to change the way Kochi has managed its day-to-day life so far.

Mr. Manishankar sees in the Brahmapuram project a big break from the past. He says that the project is being realised against heavy odds and compares it to the situation in other States where the mission has made more rapid progress.

With the specific problems faced by public projects in Kerala, the Corporation has acted efficiently.

One of the projects that has now run into some trouble is the Rs. 130-crore Basic Service for Urban Poor. Mr. Manishankar says that the work under the project was tendered twice, but the inflationary market conditions had proved a stumbling block. Negotiations are on with the contractors.

There is some progress in the Rs.200-crore water supply scheme that is the cornerstone of the water component of the mission for Kochi. While some progress has been made in completing the formalities, land acquisition will have to be notified by the government before the Kerala Water Authority can go full steam ahead.

The scheme involves drawing water from the Moovattupuzha to Nettoor. Laying the pipeline will require land acquisition.

Similarly, sites are being identified for 10 sewage pumping stations. Work on a project to prevent water-logging in the heart of the city is in its preliminary stage.

The most pressing job before the Corporation will be the preparation of a detailed report on traffic management.

The challenge lies in preparing detailed project reports, drawing up a time-bound action plan and implementing it, says the planning official.

What is needed is a collective effort stemming from the political will to utilise this opportunity. This will is needed in preparing detailed reports and pushing projects and approvals through so that Kochi has a bright future.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail