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Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban

Transportation (AMRUT)
A Flagship Scheme of the Government of India
This brief sheds light upon the recently launched Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transportation (AMRUT), which has now
replaced the earlier Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM). The brief is divided in to three sections: the first
discusses the mission, coverage and thrust areas, the second provides a brief description of various components of the scheme, such
as funding and planning, and the final section showcases case studies suggesting interventions by various state level governments.

The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transportation (AMRUT)

scheme, launched on 25th June 2015, is aimed at providing basic services
to households and build amenities in cities to improve the quality of life,
especially the poor and the disadvantaged. AMRUT focuses on ensuring
water supply, sewerage and septage management, storm water drainage,
urban transport and availability of green and open spaces, reform
management and support, and capacity building. 500 cities are to be
covered under the scheme and this would include all cities with a
population above 1,00,000, as well as capital cities not covered under the
previously mentioned criteria. Along with that, the 12 cities under the
Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) scheme,
some cities on the stems of main rivers (population between 75,000 and
1,00,000) and hill cities/tourist destinations would also be covered under
the scheme. The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) is the nodal
ministry for the scheme.

Background: From JnNURM to AMRUT

JnNURM was launched in 2005 for 7 years with the aim of modernizing cities and improving the infrastructure and public
services. However, due to the following issues, it was replaced by AMRUT in June 2015.

Issue in JnNURM Corrective Measure through AMRUT

Unsatisfactory Implementation of Reforms:
Less than 3/4th of the reforms were implemented
1
in North East States, Haryana and Bihar; while
some states could not even manage to roll out the
reforms.
Slow Progress of Projects: Overall, only 42%
2 projects were completed under JnNURM (even
after extension of deadline by 2 years).
AMRUT seeks to incentivize reform by earmarking 10% of the
total funds as an incentive to be released on implementation of
reform measures.
Government would be allocating funds for these incomplete
projects and extend the deadline for their completion. Also, now
the state governments would only submit a State Annual Action
Plan based on which they would be allocated funds. The Centre
will not appraise individual projects.
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Narrow Eligibility Condition For Projects: The

AMRUT would cover projects in 500 cities and towns each
eligibility conditions for assistance under the
3 with a population of 1 lakh and above, some cities situated on
JnNURM were narrow and only 63 cities/urban
stems of main rivers, a few capital cities and important cities
agglomerations qualified for assistance under the
located in hilly areas, islands and tourist areas.
scheme.
Limited Scope of Modernization: JnNURM
focused upon treatment of sewage and garbage, New additions being introduced include digitization and Wi-Fi
4
augmentation of water supply, building roads and zones in cities, aimed at improving urban governance.
flyovers.

Funding

The total outlay for AMRUT is Rs. 50,000 crore for five years from FY 2015-16 to FY 2019-20. The project fund will be
divided among States/UTs at the beginning of each year. The Central Assistance (CA) for the projects will be in three
installments of 20:40:40 of the approved cost.

The use of state funds will be recommended by the State High Power Steering Committee (SHPSC) through a State
Annual Action Plan (SAAP). The funds allocated to MoUD will be utilized at the National Mission Directorate level
(including the Urban Transport Division) for capacity building, Mission Directorate, convening national and regional
workshops, giving awards and recognition of best practices, up-scaling and replication of best practices and smart
solutions, commissioning of research and applied studies through institutions such as Centres of Excellence, and
international cooperation for individual and institutional capacity building and technology development.

Planning - Addressing the Urban Issues in a Planned and Integrated Manner

The AMRUT guidelines specify that the primary purpose is to cover all households with water supply and sewerage
connection and the planning to be undertaken at the city and state level should take this into consideration and the total
requirement of funds for achieving universal coverage for water supply and sewerage should form a significant component
of the plan. Also, issues related to availability of land and clearances from department had been identified as the key
factors responsible for delay in the erstwhile JnNURM projects. Therefore, learning from the same, the AMRUT guidelines
specify that projects, which do not have land available should not be included in the plan to be prepared by the
government and ULBs and no project work order should be issued if all clearances from all the departments have not
been received by that time.

The AMRUT guidelines also specify that the objective is to create infrastructure that has a direct link to provision of better
services to people and also achieve the Service Level Benchmarks (SLBs) , as prescribed by the MoUD. This is also
evident in the fact that the primary aim of the city-level plan of action (to be drawn by the ULBs) should be to cover all
households with tap water supply and a sewerage connection. Also, since the scheme is based on the principle of
incrementalism (wherein the specified benchmarks are to be achieved via a step-by-step process in a gradual manner),
the other SLBs will be achieved subsequently.

Under AMRUT, the following components have been introduced for better implementation of the project:

Service Level Improvement Plan (SLIP) SLIP assesses the service level gap and the Urban Local Body (ULB)
develops a plan to correct these gaps. After planning, a cost is estimated, and prioritizing of projects and zones is done.
Financing of projects, including the Operation and Management (O and M) costs will be planned through the SLIPs.
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State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) The States decide on the inter-ULB allocation based on gap analysis and financial
strength of ULBs. Typically the ULBs selected have higher gaps in provision of water supply and sewerage. At the State
level, the SAAP contains projects where the project cost is linked with revenue sources and the SAAP would be an
aggregation of SLIPs drawn at the city-level. Under AMRUT, funds are allocated to the ULBs through the States.

Resource Person A Project Development and Management Consultant (PDMC) will be stationed in cities having
population greater than five lakh and serving all surrounding AMRUT cities having population below five lakh. Each PDMC
will have one state office. The scope of PDMC under the proposed mission will be divided into four broad components
namely Planning, Design and Supervision and Project Management.

Programme Management

The programme will be managed at different levels.

National Level

Mission will be supervised by an Apex Committee (chaired by the Secretary, MoUD), which would be responsible
for approving State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) and allocate and release funds to states/UTs/Mission Directorate
on formulating threshold of physical progress of project. Also, the Additional Secretary (Smart Cities) has been
appointed as the National Mission Director and the designated person will be the overall in-charge of the entire
mission.
It would monitor and supervise the mission, and act as an advisory committee on innovative ways for resource
mobilization, private financing and land leveraging. The committee is also held accountable to confirm appointment
of organizations, institutions or agencies for third party monitoring; and delegate some of its functions to the Mission
Director.

State Level

The mission would be steered by a State Level High Powered Steering Committee (chaired by the State Chief
Secretary), which would identify the gaps in infrastructure based on State Level Benchmarks, need for individual
and institutional capacity building, ways and means to achieve urban reforms, finalisation of financial outlays, etc. of
the Mission Cities/Towns. It would also approve and plan the fund flow of projects.
The committee will supervise and monitor the progress of project, recommend proposals for release of instalment of
funds, recommend roadmap and milestones for implementation of reforms in the state/ULBs, and audit the release
of funds and review Action Taken Reports.

City Level

The Urban Local Bodies will be responsible for implementation of the mission through development of Detailed
Project Reports (DPRs) and bid documents for projects in the approved SAAP, procurement of implementation
agencies and ensuring timely completion of work.
The ULBs are responsible for developing a roadmap for Reform Implementation and Capacity Building, and
building coordination and collaboration among stakeholders for timely completion of projects without escalation of
project cost.

Case Studies: Initiatives and Measures Taken by ULBs

In the past, ULBs across the country have taken several initiatives towards improvement of quality of urban life. Following
are select case studies:
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1. Solid Waste Management (Surat Municipal Corporation)

In 1994, Surat was struck by an outbreak of Plague. But, within a span of 18 months the city made a complete reversal
from being dirty and garbage-strewn to becoming one of the cleanest cities in the country. Efforts of the Surat
Municipal Corporation combined with community participation played a key role in successful implementation of
decisions taken by the corporation. Currently, the primary collection and transportation of Municipal Solid Waste is
done by means such as sweeping during day time, container lifting, door to door collection system, night scraping and
brushing activity, hotel-kitchen waste management, and society ANUDAN (to involve civil societies as stakeholders for
internal cleaning and garbage collection). The waste collected through primary collection system reaches the semi-
closed body transfer station of the respective zone from where it is being sent to the final disposal site transported
through close body container in a mechanically compacted way. Here, the solid waste is dumped and leveled by the
heavy machineries, which is then covered by soil on a daily basis. Out of the total collection of garbage, a fraction is
sent to the processing plant, which was established on Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) basis contract through
Public Private Partnership mode. The corporation is planning to construct four more new modern transfer stations to
strengthen the primary collection, transportation and secondary transportation system.

2. Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC)

The bus transport model share in Bangalore is 43%. In October 2010, the BMTC, teamed up with Google maps to
make its routes and schedules available to commuters via mobile phones. In 2013, BMTC opted for Large-scale
Route Rationalization. Due to the large number of routes, the destination-based approach, which connects any
destination directly to other major destinations in the city, was resulting in poor service quality on account of low
frequencies. To simplify the network, BMTC introduced the Bangalore Intra-city Grid or BIG Bus Network in 2013. The
BIG Bus network is a citywide network of very high frequency services along major roads, which forms a connective
grid of routes to provide coverage across the city. This bus system also incorporates transfer facilities, service
branding, a simplified numbering convention, restructured fares, and passenger information delivery. At present, three
major arterials are functioning as direction-based routes with a 185-strong bus fleet. BMTC is currently working to
increase frequencies and upgrade three additional corridors.

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