As 15th Finance Commission term ends, development of 8 new cities plan remains on paper

NEW DELHI: The allocation of Rs 8,000 crore performance-based challenge fund by the 15th Finance Commission for developing eight new cities in 2020 has only remained on paper even as the period of the commission comes to an end on Saturday. Similarly, the progress of cities with a million-plus population to check air pollution has been unsatisfactory.

Following the 15th FC recommendation for the performance-based challenge fund to incubate up to eight new cities across India as a pilot to promote planned urbanisation and ease pressure on existing cities, the housing and urban affairs ministry had invited proposals from states. It received 28 proposals from 23 states. The ministry couldn’t finalise the eight cities and the evaluation has not been completed yet.

“This is one of the areas where the desired targets have not been met and there is hardly any hope of this proposal getting spilled over to the 16th Finance Commission. We have understood well that we need to improve our existing cities and urban areas rather than creating new ones. Naya Raipur is a live example for all of us,” said an expert privy to the deliberations of the 16th FC. The report will be presented in Parliament on Sunday.

The 14th FC had also made housing and urban affairs ministry as the nodal entity with respect to grants for million-plus cities to take steps to check air pollution, like use of mechanical sweeping machines, promotion of non-motorised transport (pedestrian and cycle), paving the side flanks of the road with facility for water percolation. Experts said the report to be tabled in Parliament will give details of the performance of cities on this parameter.

Similarly, even six years after the announcement to launch a new scheme to improve city bus availability, not a single bus under the scheme has been deployed on the road yet. Govt in Feb 2020 had announced that the Rs 18,000 crore scheme would facilitate deployment of innovative PPP models to enable private sector players to finance, acquire, operate and maintain over 20,000 buses.

The Economic Survey presented in Parliament this week mentioned that govt has launched PM e-Bus Sewa to strengthen city bus operations with 10,000 e-buses on a PPP model. It said, “Official status notes for FY25 report 7,293 e-buses approved across 14 states and four UTs, Rs 983.75 crore sanctioned for depot and behind the-meter power infrastructure, and Rs 437.5 crore already disbursed.”

The report said that despite these measures, gaps in mass transit services persist. It added that housing and urban affairs ministry recommends 40-60 buses per one lakh population; yet, many cities have far fewer. “Nationally, only about 47,650 buses serve its urban residents. Nearly 61% of these are concentrated in just nine megacities. Due to the layout of urban roads, low bus availability combined with high private vehicle use reduces person throughput per lane kilometre, leading to congestion and longer door-to-door travel times,” the survey said.