Puri notes 12 cities have raised Rs.4,384cr
Housing & Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has urged cities to use innovative ways such as municipal bonds for raising the financial resources for undertaking urban improvement projects.
Twelve cities have raised more than Rs.4,384 crores through municipal bonds, he noted, pointing out that such actions have increased Urban Local Bodies creditworthiness and made them attractive investment destinations.
Complimenting the cities for raising for using municipal bonds to raise resources, he said through the AMRUT mission, the government has pressed for cities to go to the markets to raise capital investment.
Overall, more than Rs.18 lakh crores have been invested since 2014 in the transformation of cities and towns, he said at the observation of World Habitat Day on 9 Oct 2023.
The amount of urban waste processing has increased to 76% from was around 17 about 10 years ago, said Puri, expressing confidence that in the coming time, the urban waste processing will reach to 100%.
The huge legacy dumpsites in urban areas will also be removed through bioremediation in next 2 years, he added.
Speaking on the sustainable growth of urban spaces, the Minister said that the element of sustainability is incorporated in urban transport and other policy matters related to urban development.
He added that green alternatives such as electric vehicles are being promoted to fill the vacuum in the urban transport.
Globally, urban areas are the productive hubs of economies, with more than 75% of the world’s GDP generated, he observed.
“In India, despite the relatively low urbanisation, cities already contribute 66% to the national GDP,” he informed. “This number is expected to go as high as 80 by 2050 when more than half of the country’s population resides in its urban areas.” Fiinews.com
