Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission

Sub-missions

JnNURM primarily incorporates two sub-missions into its program:

In addition to this, it has two further components:

Objectives

Duration

The duration of the mission is seven years beginning from December 2005. During this period, the mission sought to ensure sustainable development of participating cities. An evaluation of the experience of implementation of the mission would be undertaken before the end of the Eleventh Five Year Plan in 2012.

The duration of the mission was extended by two more years: until 31 March 2014.

Implementation mechanism

The funds are channelled through state-level agencies, where grants from the central and state governments are pooled and passed on as grants or soft loans to cities provided that they have prepared development strategies and that the investments identified fit within these strategies. The mission emphasises transparency and accountability. It supports public-private partnerships and cost recovery to make service providers financially self-sustaining. The share of grant funding by the central government can vary from 35% in the largest cities to up to 90% in cities in the Northeast. Most cities receive grants covering 50% or 80% of costs depending on size. Capacity building is also included in the mission to assist urban local bodies to prepare strategies and projects.

Currently, ten projects are covered by JNNURM funds pertaining to road network, storm water drains, bus rapid transit system, water supply, solid waste management, sewage treatment, river and lake improvement, slum improvement and rehabilitation, all fall under its scope.

Coverage

As per the JNNURM guidelines, only select cities/Urban Agglomerations (UAs) as per 2001 Census have been chosen for the implementation of the programme as per norms/criteria mentioned below:

Eligibility

A total of 67 cities are eligible (up from 63 initially), provided that they have elected bodies in position. 13 specific reforms are mandatory f or states and municipalities before funds can be accessed. At the state level, they include decentralisation of urban planning, water supply and sanitation from the states to cities, as well as the enactment of laws for community participation and public disclosure. At the municipal level, they include the adoption of modern accounting systems, e-government, improvements in property tax collection, better cost recovery for water supply, sanitation and solid waste management, and targeting of investments to the poor.

State level reforms

As of 2012 Gujarat led the tally for the state level reforms, being the only state to have achieved all 10 reforms required by the mission. Five states have achieved 9 out of 10 reforms: Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. Public disclosure and community participation laws have initially progressed slowly, with only five states managing to enact them as part of the reform agenda as of 2009. However, as of 2012 community participation laws have been enacted by 22 out of 31 states, and public disclosure laws were enacted by 27 states. 20 states had decentralised the responsibility for water supply and sanitation from the state level to ULBs, and 19 had done so for city planning functions.

City level reforms

As of 2012, Visakhapatnam, Surat and Pune had the distinction of having accomplished all 8 city level reforms. Chennai, Greater Mumbai and Hyderabad had achieved 7 out of 8 reforms. Out of 67 cities, 30 had achieved the 90% target for property tax collection, 20 had achieved full operation and maintenance cost recovery for water supply and sanitation, but only 8 had achieved cost recovery for solid waste.

Sanctioning of projects

As of 2009, 415 projects requiring an investment of ₹440 billion (US$6.5 billion), equivalent to half the total envisaged program amount, were approved. Among the states, Maharashtra has been sanctioned the maximum number of projects under the mission. Among cities, Bangalore has had the highest number of approved projects.

Midterm appraisal

A midterm appraisal carried out in 2009 by the consulting firm Grant Thornton recommended to establish a single directorate for the ministries in charge of the mission; more involvement of city administrations in the preparation of city development plans that were prepared by consultants; broader stakeholder consultation during environmental and social impact assessments; the development of a national procurement manual; separation of the approval process for projects in two stages; financial support and capacity development for the implementation of reforms in addition to funding for infrastructure; the use of policies for public-private partnerships and pooled funding mechanisms at the state level, such as urban development funds that exist in Tamil Nadu and Orissa.

List of identified cities

The following table provides for a list of the cities/urban agglomerations (UAs) identified to receive the benefits of JNNURM. They include data pertaining to the state they belong to; the population in these cities given in lakhs as per the census of 2001.

Note: National Steering Group may choose to add or delete cities/UAs/towns under Category-C (other than state capitals) based on the suggestions received from state governments. However, the number of cities under the mission shall remain around 60.