tune of Rs. 40 lakh crore spread over the period of 20
year, as estimated a Committee appointed by MoUD
during 2011. The requirements for maintenance of these
assets would be about half of that. For an urban popula-
tion of about 40 crore, this would work out, in per capita
terms, to Rs. 1 lakh, spread over 20 years, with operating
cost estimated at Rs. 50,000 per head. In per annum
terms, these figures would convert to Rs. 5000 per year
for capex and Rs 2500 per year for opex. Breaking down
further, these figures come to Rs. 400 and 200 per head
per month, respectively. At per day level, these are mere
Rs. 13 and Rs. 7, respectively. For the statutory mini-
mum daily wages of Rs. 200, a family would earn at least
Rs. 200 a day, or Rs. 400, if both partners work, which
most do. Therefore, people can contribute directly to
meet the investment targets, while getting improved
water supply and other civic services.
The key question is as to how to convince people to
make such contribution, for capital investments and for
The investment required for
bringing the urban infrastruc-
ture and services is Rs. 40 lakh
crore spread over 20 years
operation & maintenance of the basic civic services. In
the ensuing paragraphs, commencing from the JN-
NURM experience, the possible options for raising the
financial resources for urban services would be pre-
sented.The JNNURM experience
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mis-
sion (JNNURM) was the first major programme
launched to promote investment in urban sector. Dur-
ing its effective implementation period of 7 years (2007-
2014), the Mission induced investment of about Rs.
80,000 crore in the 65 bigger (Mission) cities and about
Rs. 20,000 crore in the smaller cities. The Mission en-
countered serious bottlenecks in implementation, com-
mencing with inadequately staffed municipalities, with
weak financial resources and with decision-making au-
thority lying effectively with State level agencies. Despite20
The amount in
terms of lakh
crore, which will be
required to maintain
infrastructure
assets of the cities
for the period of 20
years.