Centre releases 41 cr Amrut funds for Telangana

New Delhi: The Ministry of Urban Development has released Central Assistance of Rs 1,062.27 crore to 13 States as first installment under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) for 2015-16.

Out of this, Telangana had been given Rs 40.85 crore and Andhra Pradesh Rs 60.08 crore against their Annual Action Plans of Rs 408.51 crore and Rs 662.86 crore, respectively. This is a part of total Central Assistance of Rs 5,311.38 crore committed to 13 states for which the ministry has approved Atal Mission Action Plans for 2015-16 entailing total investment of Rs 11,671.76 crore in 286 cities in these states. The ministry has so far cleared a total of 939 projects for 286 cities with most of them related to water supply and sewerage network services.

Atal Mission launched in June this year aims at ensuring water supply connections and sewer connections to all urban households in 500 mission cities besides supplying water at the norm of 135 litres per capita per day, on priority. Under this mission, construction of storm water drains, promotion of non-motorised urban transport, provision of parks and green spaces also will be supported.

Under Atal Mission, Central assistance is provided based on an objective criteria giving equal weightage to the total urban population and number of statutory urban bodies in each state. Total Central assistance of Rs 50,000 crore has been provisioned under the mission for 5 years. The Central assistance is up to 50% of project costs for cities with population of less than 10 lakh each and up to one third for cities with population above 10 lakh each.