Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) has asked the 20 Smart Cities selected in the first round of competition to quickly firm up bankable projects for obtaining loan assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank and the BRICS Development Bank. ADB has in principle agreed to extend a loan of US$1 Billion while the World Bank is willing to extend a loan of US $ 0.50 billion for the implementation of Smart City Mission. BRICS Development Bank is keen to support smart city projects.
Rajiv Gauba, Secretary, MoUD met the officials of eight Smart Cities – Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Udaipur, Jaipur, Ludhiana and Jabalpur – and discussed the progress of the projects. The officials also submitted details of the projects that could be launched by June, 2016. These projects include Affordable housing projects, 24 X 7 water supply projects, Sewage Treatment Plants, transport projects, smart street lighting, roof top mounted solar paneling, Solid Waste Management and waste water recycling projects and technology based Pan-city projects like Intelligent Transport Solutions, e-governance, provision of wifi services, Common Payment Cards, RFID based tags for individual household dustbins etc. Gauba also stressed on the importance of mobilization of resources through Municipal Bonds issue, and urged the cities to act quickly to obtain credit ratings from agencies approved by the SEBI. The process for credit rating of 85 cities has already been initiated under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and all the 500 Mission cities shall complete this process in the next one year.