Planning Commission rejects JNNURM proposal on cities

NEW DELHI: The proposal to include 28 cities having a population of five lakh and above under the flagship Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission ( JNNURM) has been rejected by the Planning Commission on account of resource constraints.

"It was proposed by the Ministry to include 28 cities or urban agglomerations with population of five lakh and above under the Urban Infrastructure and Governance ( UIG) of JNNURM," Minister of State for Urban Development Sugata Roy said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

However, "on account of resource constraints, the Planning Commission did not agree to include these cities under UIG of JNNURM," the Minister said.

The proposed cities included Guntur, Warangal, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Belgaum, Mangalore and Hubli-Dharwad, Durg-Bhilai Nagar, Kozhikode, Gwalior, Amravati, Bhiwandi, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Solapur, Cuttack, Jalandhar, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Kota, Salem, Tiruppur, Tiruchirappalli, Aligarh, Bareilly, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur and Moradabad.

UIG is a sub-mission of JNNURM which looks at projects such as widening of roads, reducing congestion, renewal of sewerage and water pipe system, development of heritage areas, preservation of water bodies in urban areas which come under the programme.