Telangana Municipal department to tap urban challenge fund for Rs 10K cr

Hyderabad: Telangana’s Municipal Administration Department is exploring the options to get loans for taking up development works in the urban local bodies (ULBs) in the state under the Urban Challenge Fund initiative of the Centre.

According to sources, the department is planning to get Rs 10,000 crore in a phased manner with a matching grant of 50 per cent including 25 each by the state and the central government. A senior official said that with tier-2 and tier-3 cities, along with rapidly growing Gram Panchayats transitioning into Urban Local Bodies, and the state poised to become 50 per cent urbanized in the coming years, there is a huge requirement for equal attention. To address this, the Centre started Urban Challenge Fund, a transformative initiative. Under the Urban Challenge Fund framework, the central and state governments share the viability gap funding equally, while municipalities mobilize the rest through municipal bonds, bank borrowings and public-private partnerships.

The official said that Telangana had already secured approval for Rs 1,420 crore in central assistance against projects worth Rs 5,681 crore for Greater Warangal, Khammam and Karimnagar during the first NAC meeting. The state had also proposed a Rs 7,800 crore project pipeline for tier-III cities, with additional proposals under preparation.

The official said that 50 per cent funds would be procured through Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) and the remaining with contribution from state and the Union Housing and Urban Development Ministry. The official said that the funds to the tune of Rs 4,574.6 crore would be utilized for underground drainage works in Warangal Municipal Corporation (WMC). During his visit to Warangal, the Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had promised to take up underground drainage works.

Similarly, an amount of Rs 8,40 crore was earmarked for model roads, junction developments and civic infrastructure. Besides, there is a proposal to have Integrated Command Control at Karimnagar for the three corporations. Along with the installation of CC Cameras, there is a proposal to align the CCTVs under the control of the Police Department to this command control.

The Centre has given approval for this proposal with a cost of Rs 166.44 crore. Another proposal is modernization of the Karimnagar dumping yard with Rs 80 crore and drainage with Rs 130 crore. The Centre approved Rs 630 crore for roads, skywalks, foot over bridges and others in Karimnagar Corporation.