The city Corporation has finally hit 50% fund expenditure for projects being executed under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme. As on Saturday, the Corporation has spent 50.55% of a total of ₹357.50 crores allocated for the scheme, with some of the bigger projects under it awaiting commission.
After initial hiccups in getting the scheme started, the civic body maintained a steady pace for projects under the scheme. However, the last year and a half has been beset with delays due to a variety of reasons. Following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, most of the projects came to a standstill, as some of the major projects depended on labourers from outside the State, many of whom had travelled back home then. Two extended periods of model code of conduct, first due to the local body elections towards the end of the previous year and the ongoing one owing to the Assembly elections, have also affected the pace of projects.
Poll plank
Administrative and technical sanctions have been accorded to all of the 270 projects under the scheme in the Corporation area. One of the most prestigious projects under the scheme, the 75-mld water treatment plant in Aruvikkara, was commissioned just before the Assembly elections. It had become a poll plank in some of the constituencies in the city and the suburbs, with both the Centre and the State governments claiming credit for it owing to their fund shares.
The capital occupies the first position in fund utilisation among the bigger urban local bodies, including Kochi and Kozhikode. However, it is at the fifth position, when all the smaller local bodies are taken into consideration. In the initial years of the project, the comparatively smaller sewerage, water supply and stormwater drainage projects were completed. Out of a total of 103 stormwater drainage projects in Thiruvananthapuram, 95 have already been carried out.
The maximum expenditure comes in water supply projects, with 76.57% of the funds spent and 30 out of a total of 45 projects being completed. In the sewerage and septage management projects, 74 out of a total of 114 projects have been completed, with an expenditure of 38.29%.
Published - April 17, 2021 07:55 pm IST
