Cities are home to about 50 crore people, accounting for about 36% of India’s population
The urban population has been growing at a steady pace of 2% to 2.5% annually
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) since 2015 has provided as many as 85 lakh housing units for the EWS-Middle Income Groups (MIG) categories, with an investment of about ₹8 lakh crore
The Budget has proposed to give support for the construction of another one crore such units in urban areas with an investment of ₹10 lakh crore,
It will include central assistance of ₹2.2 lakh crore in the next five years
Budget has announced new rental housing with dormitory-type accommodation for industrial workers.
This is envisaged to be developed in public-private partnership (PPP) mode with upfront financial support under the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme
The core infrastructure requirement for cities includes water supply, sanitation, roads and sewerage systems.
Specific to the cities, the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) provides ₹8,000 crore
Investment of ₹11.11 lakh crore for capex in infrastructure, cities can make efforts to partake a share in it
₹1.50 lakh crore is made available to States as an interest-free loan for infrastructure development
Smart Cities Mission was provided budgetary support of ₹8,000 crore in 2023-24, which has been scaled down to ₹2,400 crore in 2024-25
A new window, the National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM), has been opened in this Budget, with a provision of ₹1,150 crore
It focus on the digitisation of property and tax records and their management, with GIS mapping
Municipalities would get the normal ‘Finance Commission Grant’ of ₹25,653 crore.
In addition, a provision of ₹500 crore has been made for the incubation of new cities
The Budget has also proposed encouraging electric bus systems for cities and has provided ₹1,300 crore for it
Budget has announced a special thrust to introduce bankable projects for Solid waste management (SWM) in collaboration with State government and financial institutions.
The Budget has proposed to develop 100 weekly ‘haats’ or street food hubs in select cities
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