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Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban

Transformation (AMRUT)
Flagship Scheme
This brief sheds light upon the recently launched Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT),which has now
replaced the earlier Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM).The brief is divided in to three sections: the first
discusses the mission, coverage and thrust areas, second provides a brief description of various components of the scheme, such as
funding and planning, and the final section showcases case studies suggesting interventions by various state level governments.

Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)

scheme, launched on 25th June 2015, is aimed at providing basic
services to households and build amenities in cities to improve the quality
of life, especially the poor and the disadvantaged. AMRUT focuses on
ensuring water supply, sewerage and septage management, storm water
drainage, urban transport and availability of green and open spaces,
reform management and support, and capacity building.

Background: From JnNURM to AMRUT

JnNURM was launched in 2005 for 7 years with the aim of modernizing
cities and improving the infrastructure and public services. However, due
to the following issues, it was replaced by AMRUT in June 2015.

Issue in JnNRUM Corrective Measure through AMRUT

1 Unsatisfactory Implementation of Reforms: AMRUT seeks to incentivize reform by earmarking 10% of the
Less than 3/4th of the reforms were implemented total funds as an incentive to be released on implementation of
in North East States, Haryana and Bihar; while reform measures.
some states could not even manage to roll out the
reforms.
2 Slow Progress of Projects: Overall, only 42% Government would be allocating funds for these incomplete
projects were completed under JNNRUM (even projects and extend the deadline for their completion. Also, now
after extension of deadline by 2 years). the state governments would only submit a State Annual Action
Plan based on which they would be allocated funds. The Centre
will not appraise individual projects.

3 Narrow Eligibility Condition For Projects: The AMRUT would cover projects in 500 cities and towns each with
eligibility conditions for assistance under the a population of 1 lakh and above, some cities situated on stems
JNNURM were narrow and only 63 cities/urban of main rivers, a few capital cities and important cities located in
agglomerations qualified for assistance under the hilly areas, islands and tourist areas.
scheme.
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4 Limited Scope of Modernization: JnNURM New additions being introduced include digitization and Wi-Fi
focused upon treatment of sewage and garbage, zones in cities, aimed at improving urban governance.
augmentation of water supply, building roads and
flyovers.

Funding

The total outlay for AMRUT is Rs. 50,000 crore for five years from FY 2015-16 to FY 2019-20. The project fund will be
divided among States/UTs at the beginning of each year. The Central Assistance (CA) for the projects will be in three
installments of 20:40:40 of the approved cost.

The use of state funds will be recommended by the State High Power Steering Committee (SHPSC) through State
Annual action Plan (SAAP). The funds allocated to MoUD will be utilized at the National Mission Directorate level
(including the Urban Transport Division) for capacity building, Mission Directorate, convening national and regional
workshops, giving awards and recognition of best practices, up-scaling and replication of best practices and smart
solutions, commissioning of research and applied studies through institutions such as Centres of Excellence, and
international cooperation for individual and institutional capacity building and technology development.

Planning

Under AMRUT, the following components have been introduced for better implementation of the project:

Service Level Improvement Plan (SLIP)- SLIP assesses the service level gap and the Urban Local Body (ULB)
develops a plan to correct these gaps. After planning, a cost is estimated, and prioritizing of projects and zones is done.
Financing of projects, including the Operation and Management (O and M) costs will be planned through the SLIPs.

State Annual Action Plan (SAAP)- The States decide on the inter-ULB allocation based on gap analysis and financial
strength of ULBs. Typically the ULBs selected have higher gaps in provision of water supply and sewerage. At the State
level the SAAP contains projects where the project cost is linked with revenue sources. Funds are provided by AMRUT to
ULBs through the States.

Resource Person - A Project Develpoment and Management Consultant (PDMC) will be stationed in cities having
population greater than five lakh and serving all surrounding AMRUT cities having population below five lakh. Each PDMC
will have one state office. The scope of PDMC under the proposed mission will be divided into four broad components
namely Planning, Design and Supervision and Project Management.

Programme Management

The programme will be managed at different levels.

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National Level

• Mission will be supervised by an Apex Committee (chaired by the Secretary, MoUD), which would be responsible
for approving State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) and allocate and release funds to states/UTs/Mission Directorate
on formulating threshold of physical progress of project.
• It would monitor and supervise the mission, and act as an advisory committee on innovative ways for resource
mobilization, private financing and land leveraging. The committee is also held accountable to confirm appointment
of organizations, institutions or agencies for third party monitoring; and delegate some of its functions to the Mission
Director.

State Level

• The mission would be steered by a State Level High Powered Steering Committee (chaired by the State Chief
Secretary), which would identify the gaps in infrastructure based on State Level Benchmarks, need for individual
and institutional capacity building, ways and means to achieve urban reforms, finalisation of financial outlays, etc. of
the Mission Cities/Towns. It would also approve and plan the fund flow of projects.
• The committee will supervise and monitor the progress of project, recommend proposals for release of instalment of
funds, recommend roadmap and milestones for implementation of reforms in the state/ULBs, and audit the release
of funds and review Action Taken Reports.

City Level

• The Urban Local Bodies will be responsible for implementation of the mission through development of Detailed
Project Reports (DPRs) and bid documents for projects in the approved SAAP, procurement of implementation
agencies and ensuring timely completion of work.
• The ULBs are responsible for developing a roadmap for Reform Implementation and Capacity Building, and
building coordination and collaboration among stakeholders for timely completion of projects without escalation of
project cost.

Case Studies: Initiatives and Measures Taken by ULBs

In the past, ULBs have taken many initiatives towards improvement of quality of urban life. Following are select case
studies:

1. Solid Waste Management (Surat Municipal Corporation)

In 1994, Surat was struck by an outbreak of Plague. But, within a span of 18 months the city made a complete reversal
from being dirty and garbage-strewn to becoming one of the cleanest cities in the country. Efforts of Surat Municipal
Corporation combined with community participation played a key role in successful implementation of decisions taken
by the corporation. Currently, the primary collection and transportation of Municipal Solid Waste is done by means such
as sweeping during day time, container lifting, door to door collection system, night scraping and brushing activity, hotel-
kitchen waste management, and society ANUDAN (to involve civil societies as stakeholders for internal cleaning and
garbage collection). The waste collected through primary collection system reaches the semi-closed body transfer
station of the respective zone from where it is being sent to the final disposal site transported through close body
container in a mechanically compacted way. Here, the solid waste is dumped and leveled by the heavy machineries,
which is then covered by soil on a daily basis. Out of the total collection of garbage, a fraction is sent to processing plant
which is established on Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) basis contract through Public Private Partnership mode.
The corporation is planning to construct four more new modern transfer stations to strengthen the primary collection,
transportation and secondary transportation system.
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2. Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC)

The bus transport model share in Bangalore is 43%. In October 2010, the BMTC, teamed up with Google maps to make
its routes and schedules available to commuters via mobile phones. In 2013, BMTC opted for Large-scale Route
Rationalization. Due to the large number of routes, the destination-based approach, which connects any destination
directly to other major destinations in the city, was resulting in poor service quality on account of low frequencies. To
simplify the network, BMTC introduced the Bangalore Intra-city Grid or BIG Bus Network in 2013. The BIG Bus network
is a citywide network of very high frequency services along major roads, which forms a ‘connective grid’ of routes to
provide coverage across the city. This bus system also incorporates transfer facilities, service branding, a simplified
numbering convention, restructured fares, and passenger information delivery. At present, three major arterials are
functioning as direction-based routes with a 185-strong bus fleet. BMTC is currently working to increase frequencies
and upgrade three additional corridors.

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