The government is considering market borrowings to incentivise speedy execution of urban infrastructure projects under various new urban missions launched over the last two years, such as Smart Cities and Housing for All, minister of housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday.

“To overcome the severe infrastructure deficit accumulated over long years, huge order of investments is required. To meet various contingencies and to ensure fund availability to meet the targets under new urban missions, we are thinking of mobilising resources from the market…Once this idea is firmed up, we will take it forward in an appropriate manner,” Puri said at an event organised by the Public Affairs forum of India.

The government is committed to extend central assistance of Rs 50,000 crore under the Atal Mission and Rs 48,000 crore under the Smart City Mission until 2019-2020 and in the range of Rs 1 lakh to over Rs 2.5 lakh per each affordable house to be built until 2022. Even with the conservative projection of requiring to build over over one crore houses by 2022 under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), internal assessment is that central assistance to the tune of about Rs 1.80 lakh crore will be required to be provided, Puri noted, adding Central assistance released so far is about Rs 11,000 crore under the housing mission and about Rs 10,000 crore each under the Smart City Mission and Atal Mission.

The minister, however, did not specify the amount the government was looking to mobilise from the market.

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