Modi govts spent Rs 11 lakh crore for urban development in past 7 yrs: Puri

Apr 19,2022

The governments under Prime Minister Narendra Modi have spent over Rs 11 lakh crore for urban development in the last seven years, Union Minister for Housing and Urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said in Surat Monday.

“During the time of the UPA government from 2004 to 2014, the total money spent on urban space across the country was Rs 1.57 lakh crore. The schemes started by PM Modi in 2015 to date have crossed Rs 11 lakh crore. This includes the Swachh Bharat Mission, Smart Cities Mission, etc,” Puri said as he inaugurated the fourth edition of Smart Cities Smart Urbanisation in the city.

Winners of the India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC) 2020, announced via virtual conference last year, were felicitated at the event. The awards distribution ceremony was deferred due to the prevailing Covid-19 situation at that time. Surat and Indore won the best city award, while Uttar Pradesh was awarded the best state.

Puri said: “The 100 smart cities were selected through citizen stakeholder consultations and projects they have implemented and have been through. A total of 8,000 projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore are been tendered in the smart cities. Work order has been issued for 7,600 projects worth Rs 1.80 lakh crore; 3,800 projects worth Rs 61,000 crore have been completed and are fully operational. In the central government schemes, the Smart Cities mission is the fasted executed projects amongst all.”

He also lauded the efforts of the command and control centres in smart cities that acted like war rooms during the pandemic. “The smart cities’ nerve is the integrated command-and-control centre. The centres played an important role during the Covid pandemic… through it, the teams learnt where there is a shortage of oxygen and medicines and accordingly work was done… Today, 80 integrated command-and-control centres are operational and the remaining 20 centres will be completed by August 15 this year,” he said.

Puri said the Central government has crossed its own target to construct 1 crore houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Mission by March 31. “We have crossed the target and touched 1.15 crore houses. Of them, 60 lakh have already been given to people, while the remaining ones are ready and will be allotted soon. Under PMAY, we are coming up with six lighthouse projects at six locations in the country,” he said.

About the rise in petrol prices, Puri claimed that only BJP-ruled states have reduced the VAT charges. He urged the Congress-ruled states to follow suit. Puri noted that between April 1, 2021, and March 31 this year, the rise in petrol prices in other countries such as the US (50.6 per cent), Canada (50.7 per cent), Germany (50.05 per cent), the UK (58.9 per cent), France (33 per cent), and Spain (58.5 per cent) was far more compared to India (16 per cent).