Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission -in brief

Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission is a massive city modernisation scheme launched by the Government of India under Ministry of Urban Development. It envisages a total investment of over $20 billion over seven years. It is named after Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India. The scheme was officially inaugurated by the prime minister, Manmohan Singh on 3 December 2006 as a programme meant to improve the quality of life and infrastructure in the cities.

JNNURM is a huge mission which relates primarily to development in the context of urban conglomerates focusing to the Indian cities. JNNURM aims at creating ‘economically productive, efficient, equitable and responsive Cities’ by a strategy of upgrading the social and economic infrastructure in cities, provision of Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP)and wide-ranging urban sector reforms to strengthen municipal governance in accordance with the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992.

The JNNURM project is a one of a kind project dedicated to the redevelopment of India’s cities. This is quite a unique step considering the planning ideologies of India. Till date India was primarily focused on the development of rural areas. India’s comprehensive network of underdeveloped villages required such development.

As per the 2011 census, India is home to about 1.25 billion people, making it one of the most densely populated areas of the world after China. However it was also estimated that 70% of India’s population lies in rural areas. However urban India is fast growing but sometimes in unplanned ways. India is benchmarked to be the next superpower. India even held a steady growth rate during the recent recession. However, unplanned growth has taken a toll on urban India, especially due to problems in the agricultural sector in rural India. Hence, the rising population due to migration from rural to urban cities as well as other factors have also contributed to the increase of slums in the cities and degradation of cities due to lack of planning has also taken place.

Inadequate infrastructure, rising population rates as well as rising urban poverty are also major causes to the degradation of the cities. Hence the Government of India has taken up the initiative to redevelop the urban towns and cities by developing infrastructure, municipal reforms and providing aid to the State Governments and the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), in order to develop urban India. As per the information in the JNNURM mission brochure as launched by the Authorities, cities and towns account for 30 percent of the country’s population, contributing 50 – 55 % of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The degrading conditions of the cities have forced the Government to rethink their strategies in order to adhere to the socio-economic objectives of the country.

Mission Objectives

• Focused attention relating to infrastructural services in the context of integrated development is to be covered under the Mission.
• Make efficient and increase self-sustaining capabilities of cities as per the sector proving infrastructural services by securing the linkages between asset creation and asset management
• Ensure adequate investment of funds to fulfill deficiencies in the urban infrastructural services.
• Planned development of identified cities including peri-urban areas, out growths, urban corridors, so that urbanization takes place in a dispersed manner.
• Scale up delivery of civic amenities and provision of utilities with emphasis on universal access to urban poor.
• To take up urban renewal programme, i.e., re-development of inner (old) cities area to reduce congestion

Implementation mechanism

The funds are channeled through state-level agencies, where grants from the Central and State governments are pooled and passed on as grants or soft loans to cities provided that they have prepared city development strategies and that the investments identified fit within these strategies. The mission emphasizes transparency and accountability. It supports public-private partnerships and cost recovery to make service providers financially self-sustaining. The share of grant funding by the central government can vary from 35% in the largest cities to up to 90% in cities located in the Northeast. Most cities receive grants covering 50% or 80% of costs depending on the size of the city.Capacity building is also included in the mission to assist urban local bodies to prepare strategies and projects.

Currently, ten projects are being covered by JNNURM funds pertaining to road network, storm water drains, bus rapid transit system, water supply, solid waste management, sewage treatment, river and lake improvement, slum improvement and rehabilitation, all fall under its scope.

source: Government of India:Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, ca. 2005
            Guidelines:JNNURM Guidelines, February 2009