Rajya Sabha updated on conclave for creating sustainable cities
Officials of multi-lateral institutions such as, World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) GESELLSCHAFT FÜR INTERNATIONALE ZUSAMMENARBEIT (GIZ), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) among others joined over 1,000 delegates at the National Urban Planning Conclave held 13-14 July 2023,
Officials from various State Governments/ULBs and Academic Institutes all over India also attended the conclave for creating sustainable cities, Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs, Kaushal Kishore, said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on 31 July 2023.
An exhibition was also held to showcase the Best Practices in Urban Planning by various State Town Planning Departments and Planning Institutes for the benefit of attendees.
Under the Sub Scheme on Formulation of Geographical Information System (GIS) Based Master Plan for AMRUT Cities, 77 trainings programmes have been conducted and 2,900 officials have been trained on use of Geographical Information System (GIS) and remote sensing technology in urban planning, he said.
The Minister pointed out that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has been conducting handholding workshops, conferences, training programmes for the capacity building of State Government officials/ULBs.
He informed that the Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment for the year 2022-23 with an outlay of Rs.6,000 crores and for the year 2023-24 with an outlay of Rs.15,000 crores was launched by Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance under which component of ‘Urban Reforms’. The Ministry is monitoring the scheme.
During the Special Assistance scheme for States for the year 2022-23 from the total outlay of Rs.6,000 crore, an amount of Rs.4,598.22 crore was recommended by MoHUA to Ministry of Finance in respect of 13 participating states under Part VI of the Scheme for “Urban Reforms”.
However, a total amount of Rs.4,093.16 crore has been released by the Department of Expenditure, he said.
The incentive amount was released from the Department of Expenditure to the respective State Governments to be utilized by 31 March 2023.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs does not monitor utilization of incentives released to the States, said Minister Kishore. Fiinews.com
