Speaking at the CII Annual meeting today, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Housing and Urban Affairs said that his Ministry is keen to engage with CII to build an ecosystem wherein captains of industry can work directly on issues of urbanization and sustainability. Most of the government programmes hold a strong component of the Public-Private-Partnership model. With a historical perspective, we can look at the issues in urbanization in terms of continuity and change. This was stated during the session on “Sustainable Urbanization”.
Explaining how the Modi government has moved ahead on urbanization, he said that “Since 2014, the architecture of urbanization schemes has been altered and in 6 years since implementation of the new schemes, nearly Rs 11,18,000 crores has been spent as compared to Rs 1,57,000 crores in the previous 10-period of 2004-2014”.
The Swachh Bharat Mission has been a roaring success. India became open defecation free with third party verification and certification processes – much before its intended timeline in 2019. However, the improvements in behavioral changes and choices of people are still in progress.
The systems of treatment of solid waste are still insufficient in India, with nearly 76 per cent of solid waste being treated as of now. With further investments, incentivization and setting up of Sewage Treatment Plants it would reach 100 per cent.
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna is using four verticals, in-situ slum rehabilitation; credit linked subsidy scheme; beneficiary led construction scheme and Affordable Housing in partnership. There is a current demand of nearly 1.12 crore residential units which has been saturated as 52-53 lakh beneficiaries have already moved into the residences and nearly 82 lakh houses are under construction. “We are also using latest technology in implementing these targets with 6 lighthouse projects as part of the Global Housing Technology Challenge-India that are intended to construct over 1000 residential units in less than a year,” he added.
The Smart Cities Mission works on an inclusive and sustainable pattern wherein 76 cities of the 100 have urban centers and the rest are intended to be completed with the desired timelines despite the pandemic. We intend to take such schemes forward with Rs 1,45,000 crores allocated for the follow up of the Swachh Bharat Mission. 724kms of the metro is operational and 1076kms is under construction. Metro light and Neo Metro are also to be added as urban mobility is central to the vision of sustainable urbanization. The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana has reached 30 crore gas connections in the country as compared to 14 crore in 2014. Currently, India has 18,000kms of gas pipeline and is expected to reach 32,000kms in the coming years.
Mr Sanjiv Bajaj, President Designate, Confederation of Indian Industry, which introducing the Minister stated that nearly 40 per cent of the population which is approximately 600 million people would live in urban spaces by 2030. As we know that urban centers are magnets and drivers of economic activity and employment generation, and we need more such magnets to enable future opportunities for the youth.
12 August 2021