AP proposes to invest Rs 30,695 Cr for urban infrastructure

Hyderabad, Feb 2 : As part of efforts to face the challenge of steep rise in population in urban areas with growth pegged at 33.5% against the national average of 31%, the Govt. of AP is contemplating to take up a massive programme for Urban Infrastructure Development (UID) for improving the living standards of low income groups and their economic development. The urban population in AP is projected to increase to 45.5 million or 4.55 Crores by the year 2030 constituting 46 percent of total population.

In this direction, the Govt. of AP has prepared detailed estimates of required investment in 8 sectors i.e. water supply, sewerage, solid waste management, storm water drains, urban roads, urban transportation, traffic support infrastructure and street lighting. Based on the estimates made by the high power expert committee on urban infrastructure services, the per capita investment required in the State in the next 6 years (2014-2020) is Rs.10,846/- (on each individual) amounting to Rs.30,695 Crore.

Part of the focus would be on Energy Efficiency measures to further improve power supply situation in Urban areas for which Govt. of AP/Utilities initiated a major programme of Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) with an investment of Rs.1,880 Cr for development of IT and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), System improvement works like construction of Substations & lines, enhancement of power transformers in the next 4 years.

Disclosing the above details, Chief Secretary and SECM Chairman Dr P.K. Mohanty, in an interaction with top officials of Energy dept. and MA&UD including M. Sahoo, S.K. Joshi, Suresh Chanda, Munindra, Janardhan Reddy, said the major challenges in managing urbanisation are (i) Significant rise in investments for urban infrastructure & services (ii) Strengthening the framework for Governance and Financing (iii) Slum development and urban poverty alleviation (iv) Urban housing and (v) Comprehensive capacity building programme at all levels of Govt.

The development comes in the light of recent release of the book titled `Challenges of urbanisation in India – An overview’ authored by Dr. P.K. Mohanty in association with Isher Judge Ahluwalia & Ravi Kanbur. The book is well received by readers universally.

Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh has congratulated Dr Mohanty at New Delhi for highlighting reforms and interventions through his book, to counter the challenges of urbanization and key actions to be initiated from the Govt, bureaucrats, financial institutions and urban planners.

While releasing the book, the Prime Minister suggested to the Chief Secretary of AP, who has a decade long experience in urban administration and also served in Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), to give a special report on the impact of rapid growth in urbanization of the country and its effect on the common man for incorporating the same in the report being prepared by the Centre.

One of the senior officer of MA&UD described Dr. Mohanty’s work as “Bible on Urbanisation” and said it will be very handy as a ready reckoner on the tools of urbanisation. Dr P.K. Mohanty further said that there is an immediate need to adopt the key recommendations for making cities/towns socially equitable, economically viable, and environmentally sustainable. INN