Bhubaneswar: After receiving good response from Smart City scheme, the Modi government has proposed similar scheme for the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) which will be selected through a national-level competition.

Like Smart City scheme, a competition among the states would be conducted for the scheme for Transformational Urban Reforms through Performance Based Initiative for States/ULBs. It is a Central scheme to be funded by World Bank, official sources said here Thursday.

As the state’s capital city Bhubaneswar scored top position in the Smart City completion, the state government has started full preparations to be ranked top in this competition too. The housing and urban development (H&UD) department has asked the two smart cities (Bhubaneswar and Rourkela) and nine towns covered under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) to take all necessary steps to qualify for the challenge, the officials said. 

The scheme will be implemented in two phases. In the first phase, five states including one from north east will be selected and financial assistance of USD 500 million will be provided to these states. A state can include a maximum of five towns covered under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) under the scheme, they said.

The five states would be selected through a three-stage national competition and the scheme would be executed during financial year 2018-19.

During the second phase, another eight states would be covered under the scheme and those states would get USD 1 billion. 

The objective of the scheme is to strengthen the institutional, financial and accountability system of the selected ULBs. The scheme will support and incentivise the states and civic bodies by providing performance-based incentive grants for implementing reforms.

....