Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) -INFORMATION

Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) is a massive city-modernisation scheme launched by the Government of India under Ministry of Urban Development. 

It envisages a total investment of over $20 billion over seven years. Named after Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, the scheme was officially inaugurated by prime minister Manmohan Singh on 3 December 2005 as a programme meant to improve the quality of life and infrastructure in the cities. It was launched in 2005 for a seven-year period (up to March 2012) to encourage cities to initiate steps for bringing phased improvements in their civic service levels. The government has extended the tenure of the mission for two years, i.e., from April 2012 to March 31, 2014.

JnNURM is a huge mission which relates primarily to development in the context of urban conglomerates focusing to the Indian cities. JnNURM aims at creating ‘economically productive, efficient, equitable and responsive Cities’ by a strategy of upgrading the social and economic infrastructure in cities, provision of Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP)^[2] and wide-ranging urban sector reforms to strengthen municipal governance in accordance with the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992.

JnNURM is a unique project dedicated to the redevelopment of India's cities, as India has traditionally primarily focused on the development of rural areas, especially its underdeveloped villages.

As per the 2011 census, India is home to about 1.21 billion people, making it one of the most densely populated areas of the world. However, it was also estimated that 68.9% of India's population lies in rural areas. Urban India is fast growing but sometimes in unplanned ways.

India is benchmarked to be the next superpower that held a steady growth rate during the recent recession. But unplanned growth has taken a toll on urban India, especially due to problems in the rural agricultural sector. The rising population due to migration from rural to urban areas and other factors have contributed to the increase of slums and degradation of cities due to lack of planning.

Inadequate infrastructure, rising population rates as well as rising urban poverty are major causes to the degradation of the cities. Hence, the government of India has taken up the initiative to redevelop urban towns and cities by developing infrastructure, municipal reforms and providing aid to the state governments and the urban local bodies (ULBs). As per the information in the JnNURM mission brochure as launched by the authorities, cities and towns account for 30 percent of the country's population, contributing 50–55 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The degrading conditions in cities have forced the government to rethink their strategies to adhere to the socio-economic objectives of the country.

Objectives

• Focused attention relating to infrastructural services in the context of integrated development is to be covered under the mission.
• Make efficient and increase self-sustaining capabilities of cities as per the sector proving infrastructural services by securing the linkages between asset creation and asset management
• Ensure adequate investment of funds to fulfill deficiencies in the urban infrastructural services.
• Planned development of identified cities including peri-urban areas, out growths, urban corridors, so that urbanization takes place in a dispersed manner.
• Scale up delivery of civic amenities and provision of utilities with emphasis on universal access to urban poor.
• To take up urban renewal programme, i.e., re-development of inner (old) cities area to reduce congestion

  Sub-missions

  JnNURM primarily incorporates two sub-missions into its program:
  • The Sub-Mission for Urban Infrastructure and Governance administered by the Ministry of Urban Development, with a focus on water supply and sanitation, solid waste management, road network, urban transport and redevelopment of old city areas.
  • The Sub-Mission for Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP)administered by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation with a focus on integrated development of slums.
  In addition to this, it has two further components:
  • The Sub-Mission for Urban Infrastructure Development of Small & Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) administered by the Ministry of Urban Development, with a focus on subsuming the schemes of Integrated Development of Small and Medium Towns (IDSMT) and Accelerated Urban Water Supply Programme (AUWSP) which aim at planned urban infrastructural improvement in towns and cities under its purview.
  • The Sub-Mission for Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) administered by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA) was envisaged and brought into effect in 1993–94 in accordance with providing the entire population with safe and adequate water supply facilities. 
  • The program is mainly implemented in towns with populations less than 20,000 as per the 1991 census.ACities/UAs with 4 million plus population as per 2001 census07BCities/UAs with 1 million plus but less than 4 million population as per 2001 census28CSelected cities/UAs (state capitals and other cities/UAs of religious/historic and touristic importance)28