The ministry of urban development has planned to set up a $500-million fund in collaboration with the World Bank. The fund will be available for the cities who had been excluded from the Rs 50,000-crore Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) program.

The cities would get necessary funds for the development of urban infrastructure facilities in these cities such as public transport, water management, sanitation projects and other basic facilities.

According to the urban development secretary M Ramachandran, the ministry is in talks with the World Bank for the proposed loan. The loan would be made available to city development authorities after receiving the comprehensive project reports for infrastructure development of the cities.

The Wilber Smith consulting firm is undertaking a study on this proposal and the ministry would hopefully get the report by the end of the year.

The ministry would further scrutinize the total transaction costs involved and their interest rates and then it would send it to state governments.

Ramachandran said that the ministry has also planned to organize a meeting of state urban development secretaries in Kochi in April. In this meeting the secretaries of all the states would discuss about the major infrastructure expenses and blockages.

There is also a plan to set up a dedicated authority to focus on the need of infrastructure development in every city. The asset management companies would be there to review feasibility of projects to restrict the misusing of funds.

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