NELLORE: The 15th Finance Commission, in its report pertaining to 2021-22 to 2025-26, has emphasized the need of both rejuvenation of old cities as well as setting up of new cities.
Under the performance-based challenge fund of Rs.8,000 crore for incubation of new cities, Rs 1,000 crore are available for each proposed new city.
Minister of state for housing and urban affairs Kaushal Kishore informed this while replying to a question of a member Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. According to the minister, one state can have only one new city under the proposed scheme. Thus, a maximum of eight states can avail this grant for eight new cities over the award period of the commission.
The 15th Finance Commission recommended that the ministry of housing and urban affairs would set up an expert committee, which would include independent domain experts and representatives from state governments. This committee will specify the minimum eligibility conditions for competing for the award and release of funds.
This committee will also specify the bid parameters for evaluating the competing proposals by states, make it publicly available and call for bids from states.
The expert committee will announce the winners and recommend release of the first tranche of the grant and indicate how progress of the project should be evaluated vis-a-vis specified benchmarks for release of subsequent tranche(s).
