Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said the progress of implementation of new urban missions was encouraging in 2016 and will continue to be the focus area during the new year.

“On the whole, 2016, the first year of execution of new missions has been encouraging. We would like this momentum even to be further enhanced so that intended outcomes are realised within stipulated time frames,” Urban Development Minister Naidu told reporters.

Naidu said decentralisation of project formulation, their appraisal and approval besides substantial hand holding by both the urban ministries resulted in speedy approvals.

“City governments were required to adopt new approaches in place of the earlier business as usual attitude. They rose to the occasion to a large extent and that is evident in the pace of implementation.

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According to the Ministry, Swachh Bharat Mission in urban areas got close to half-way mark of mission targets in building toilets during 2016.

“As against the target of building over 66 lakh individual household toilets, 27,81,883 have already been built and construction of another 21,43,222 toilets is nearing completion as the mission gained momentum in 2016 while 5.08 lakh community and public toilet seats are required to be built by 2019,” the government said.