Government to raise money from market for urban missions says Hardeep Puri

New Delhi, Sep 15: The Central government is planning to borrow funds from the market to incentivise speedy execution of various urban infrastructure projects, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday.

In order to overcome the "severe infrastructure deficit accumulated over long years", huge investment is required and hence, the government is considering mobilising resources from the market, he said.

"We have undertaken an assessment of requirement of funds till 2022 and likely flow of funds. To ensure assured fund flow, setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle to tap the market is under examination," Puri said at a conference on "Public Affairs: Effective Advocacy and Public Policy Strategies" here organised by the Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI).

Elaborating on the ongoing efforts to further improve urban governance, planning and execution, he announced that a comprehensive evaluation of implementation and outcomes of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) will be undertaken.

"This evaluation will provide useful guidance to city and state governments in the context of current thrust on urban rejuvenation," he said.

JNNURM was implemented during the period 2005-14, before it was wound up.

"This government, however, continued to finance some of the incomplete projects based on certain criteria, to enable their completion," Puri said.

Referring to the new urban missions launched in the last three years, he said that substantial work was being executed on the ground with hundreds of projects under implementation under new missions like Smart City Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

He asserted that impact will be visible in the next few months and expressed confidence that targeted outcomes will be achieved within given time frames.