New Delhi: After being conferred with the prestigious Bharat Ratna; there is yet another honor awaiting ex-prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The Narendra Modi government has plans to renew the 10-year old Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and name it after the first BJP prime minister.
The renewed scheme will now be known as Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).
It will again be a 10-year programme with an investment of around Rs 2 lakh crore. Under it, 500 cities and towns will be rejuvenated.
JNNURM was supposed to be renewed last year. UPA-II had even done the preparatory work for the renewal of the scheme however, as soon as the NDA government came into power, the new urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu announced to launch the new scheme instead.
According to media sources, AMRUT will primarily, include the major components of JNNURM scheme only with the inclusion of few new additions as prescribed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Earlier the scheme worked on components like – treatment of sewage and garbage, augmentation of water supply, building roads and flyovers however, now, additionally it will include digitization and wi – fi zones in the cities too.
As per Times of India report, in the new scheme, a budget of Rs 7000 – 8000 crore will be sanctioned to complete the 200 stalled projects of previous JNNURM which were left incomplete due to lack of funds.
An official confirmed to TOI that the major emphasis of the renewed scheme will be to monitor the functioning and tender projects only after completing the preparatory work.
He said, “Most of the projects got delayed and there was cost overrun because of bad take off and poor implementation. These issues would be addressed in a systematic manner.”
