Anil Joshi, Minister of Local Government Punjab today reviewed the funds plan requirement of various infrastructure works for all the towns in the State of Punjab. The meeting was attended by Mr. Ashok Kumar Gupta, Secretary, Mr. J.M. Balamurugan, Chief Executive Officer, Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company, Mr. D.K. Tiwari, Chief Executive Officer, Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Mr. Priyank Bharti, Director, all the Mayors, Commissioner and Regional Deputy Directors and other Senior Officers of the Department of Local Government and PWSSB and PMIDC.Disclosing this here today Mr. Anil Joshi, Local Government Minister said that it has been estimated that funds to the tune of Rs. 8085 crore are required to provide 100% basic Urban civic infrastructure of Water Supply, Sewerage, STP, Restoration/Upgradation of Road, Street Light, Solid Waste Management etc. in all 165 Towns in the State of Punjab. Out of these funds, the funds to the tune of Rs. 876 crore are required for water supply, Rs. 2623 crore for Sewerage, Rs. 1374 crore for STP, Rs. 314 crore for restoration of the damaged roads due to the water supply and sewerage, Rs. 23 crore for repair of old water supply and sewerage machinery, Rs. 1588 Crore for upgradation, repairs and for new roads, Rs. 279 crore for solid waste management, Rs. 163 crore for street lights and Rs. 845 crore for other infrastructures and Operation and Maintaince related works for the works in urban local bodies.
Joshi said that recently state government has made special efforts and decided to raise additional resources with the increase imposition of infrastructure development fees on diesel, petrol, additional duty on electricity and on sale of immovable properties. These additional resources would be made available for undertaking these infrastructure works in urban and rural Areas. In addition, the funds of GoI, in the ministry of urban development from their flagships schemes like Smart city and AMRUT will be converged with the state government resources to fund these infrastructure works.The Minister further informed that Government of India in the ministry of urban development in the process of launching the 2 new Flagships schemes namely: Smart Cities and Attal Mission for Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT) on 25th June, 2015 and the 18 towns of the Punjab having population more than 1 lakh as per 2011 census are likely to be covered under this scheme are as under:
1. Amritsar
2. Jalandhar
3. Ludhiana
4. Bathinda
5. Patiala
6. Pathankot
7. S.A.S. Nagar
8. Moga
9. Hoshiarpur
10. Batala
11. Abohar
12. Malerkotala
13. Khanna
14. Phagwara
15. Mukatsar
16. Barnala
17. Ferozepur
18. Kapurthala
All the conditions prescribed by the Government of India for eligiblity for getting approvals from GOI have been complied with. DPRs for the project identified of the above 18 towns have been prepared. It is expected that 33% of the fund requirement for Smart Cities namely Amritsar and Ludhiana and 50% of the funds for others 16 towns (under AMRUT Scheme) will be released as grant under the flagships schemes of GOI.The state Govt. of Punjab is fully geared up to fulfill its promise for providing 100% of basic Civic infrastructure which will give substantial impetus to investment and economics growth in Punjab.