Modi Govt "Challenges" Revanth Administration To Get Urban Infra Projects

Hyderabad: The Narendra Modi government at the Centre seems to have thrown a challenge to the Telangana state administration to secure Central assistance under the Urban Challenge Fund (UCF), the success of which would largely help Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy realise his ambition of Telangana Rising 2047 with Hyderabad as a global city being the driving force.

Besides, the proposed high-speed rail corridors, from the city towards Vijayawada, Mumbai and Bengaluru, and tax incentives to data centres and global capability centres (GCC), for which Hyderabad is emerging as a centre, will give the much-needed fillip to the ambitious Bharat Future City, say experts.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting the Union Budget on Sunday, announced that the Centre would set up annual UCF of ₹1 lakh crore for the next five years. Though the Centre had been talking about the fund, it had so far not provided clarity to the states. The guidelines were released after the Budget presentation.

According to state officials, Telangana, a frontrunner for the past two years in adopting the hybrid annuity model (HAM) for its urban infra projects, has better chances among other states to pitch in for the UCF for various projects including the ₹17,000-crore overhaul of sewerage network within the Outer Ring Road. The other state projects include Godavari waters to the twin cities and revamping of Manjeera and Osmansagar, the two drinking water sources to city.

“The two major parameters to pitch for UCF are bankability and private partner to execute under the HAM. We have successfully grounded such projects and will be ahead of several other states,” HMWS&SB managing director K. Ashok Reddy told Deccan Chronicle. The state has proposed projects worth nearly ₹40,000 crore for assistance under the challenge method, he added.

For instance, the state government has secured loan approval from Hudco (Housing And Urban Development Corporation Limited) for the ₹7,000-crore Godavari drinking water supply project to the twin cities and has found a private partner to implement it in the HAM. Officials were of the view that Musi rejuvenation, the ambitious project of the Chief Minister, was also a fit case for the challenge fund as the Asian Development Bank was all set to fund 50 per cent of the ₹4,500-crore of the first phase works.

The state government is said to be more prepared than other states to pitch for money from the Urban Challenge Fund (UCF). It has met two conditions — one of securing funding and the other of retaining a private partner.

Projects pitched by Telangana - ₹40,000 crore

Sewerage network within ORR - ₹17,000-cr

Godavari drinking water to Hyderabad - ₹7,400-cr

Manjeera refurbishment - ₹700-cr

Osmansagar conduit - ₹280-cr