6 years of Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT and PMAY-U

Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) organised an online event on June 25, 2021 to commemorate 6 years of launch of three Urban Missions namely Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban.

Key points

• These schemes were launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 25 in 2015.
• These schemes were part of visionary agenda for urban rejuvenation and designed as part of multi-layer strategy in order to meet aspirations of 40 percent of India’s population living across cities.
• June 25 also marks 45 years of establishment of National Institute of Urban Affairs. It is an autonomous body of MoHUA which focuses on bridging the gap between research and practice on issues with urbanization.

How successful these missions are?

• Projects implemented under these three Missions is now bringing about perceptible change in lives of India’s urban residents.
• These missions have led to development of urban infrastructure viz., better water supply, sanitation and housing for all. It has also pioneered the use of data, technology and innovation in planning and managing Indian cities.
• Missions also played an important role during COVID-19 pandemic.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U)

PMAY-U, under the aegis of ‘Housing for All’, cater to urban housing shortage among EWS/LIG and MIG categories including slum dwellers and seeks to provide them a ‘pucca’ house by 2022. About 1.12 crore houses have been sanctioned under it out of which 82.5 lakh houses have been grounded and 48 lakh have been completed.

Atal Mission for Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT)

AMRUT mission was launched to tackle the issues of Water Supply, Storm Water Drainage to reduce flooding, Sewerage and septage management, Non-motorized Urban Transport and creating green space or parks across 500 cities with population of more than 1 lakh.

Smart Cities Mission

It is a transformational Mission launched with the aim of bringing a paradigm shift in practice of urban development. Projects developed under it are multi-sectoral and mirror aspirations of local population. 69 Smart cities have developed and operationalised their Integrated Command & Control Centres (ICCCs) as of now. These operational ICCCs functioned as war-rooms for COVID management.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2021