Chennai: Getting approvals for construction projects in urban areas would get easy very soon with the Union Government set to come out with guidelines for such approvals in 60 days.
Ministers of six departments have almost finalized the guidelines and they will be made public by the end of September, said Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday.
“Everything will be streamlined. The local municipal authority will take care of that. We will bring in guidelines to ensure that approvals are given in 60 days,” Mr Naidu said, addressing the regional editors’ conference organized by the Press Information Bureau. He also exhorted municipal bodies, including the Chennai Corporation, to be proactive in utilising the funds of the Central Government for projects like Smart Cities.
Comparing the initiatives taken during 2004-14 and the last two years, Mr Naidu noted, “In a very short period, we have either exceeded or done close to what was done under 10 years of JNNURM in respect of all comparable and measurable parameters”.
He also said under the new urban missions, an investment potential of about Rs 18 lakh crore has been created, of which an investment of Rs 1,80,213 crore has already been approved within a short span of over one year of the launch of new schemes.
Under the new urban missions, total central assistance of Rs 53,747 crore to states and urban local bodies has been already approved for release which is almost at par with the total central assistance of Rs 54,974 crore that was approved in the previous ten years, including for housing for urban poor, he said.
The minister stated that southern states are in the forefront of implementation of housing projects for urban poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).
Elaborating further, he said that though southern States account for 27 per cent of urban population of the country, they have got 3.80 lakh houses sanctioned accounting for 42 per cent of the 8.99 lakh houses sanctioned.
Policy on Communication soon
Venkaiah who also held the I & B portfolio, informed that the Centre was in the process of formulating a national policy on communication which has been recognised as a critical component in governance by Mr Modi.
“By and large, Indian media has been progressive and has been constructive. Media is the link between government and the people...So, you have greater responsibility. The Information & Broadcasting Ministry is in the process of formulating a national policy on communication,” he said.
The two-day Regional Editors’ Conference is being attended by senior journalists from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka besides the UT of Lakshadweep.
