Union Budget: MoHUA pitches for metro roll-out in more cities
An official aware of the matter said the Union government is targeting a country-wide Metro network of 2,000 km as soon as possible
New Delhi: With Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman set to present the full budget on July 23, the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) hopes that the proposal to introduce metro rail to 10-plus cities and one lakh electric intra-city buses will be included in the announcements.
An official aware of the matter said the Union government is targeting a country-wide Metro network of 2,000 km as soon as possible. Currently, only 10,000 buses for 100 cities are being deployed under the Prime Minister’s e-Bus Seva scheme in tier-II cities that do not have a formal public bus transport system. But now, the scheme might be expanded to other cities, with the outlay likely growing multifold.
A proposal to create 10,000 km of pedestrian paths within urban areas to make cities walkable is also being considered, said the official. Additionally, the ministry hopes that a fresh push will be given to forming a unified metropolitan transport authority (UMTA) in cities, as advocated by the National Urban Transport Policy 2006.
“The formation of UMTA will be pushed by the Centre as transport is a concurrent subject as per the Constitution. Further, it will be backed financially by an Urban Transport Fund,” said the official mentioned above.
To successfully implement Unified Metropolitan Transportation Authority (UMTA), the Centre will push city, state and national-level transport planners to engage in transport planning.
A second official in the ministry said on the condition of anonymity that housing in urban areas and the national urban livelihood missions will also likely get a budgetary boost. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) remains the focus of the prime minister as the construction of 30 million houses (including those in rural areas) was announced in the first cabinet meeting of the current term.
The government is also likely to announce a new interest subvention scheme under the flagship PMAY after the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS), a sub-scheme of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U), was discontinued in March 2021, added the second official.
Incidentally, the CLSS had the highest contribution (as much as Rs.2.67 lakh) of the Union government under the PMAY(U) scheme compared to the other three sub-schemes. In the interim budget in February Sitharaman had said a new housing scheme for the middle class to buy or build homes will be formulated without specifying further.
Another ministry official, seeking anonymity, said that the revolving credit that is given to self-help groups (SHGs) will likely be doubled to Rs.20,000.
The official added that the government might also expand the ambit of the vulnerable groups who can be made part of the mission by including vulnerable groups like gig workers, informal domestic helpers, transport workers, and porters.
The ministry is exploring how to expand social security benefits to these groups by making them part of other welfare schemes run by other ministries.