Urban infrastructure gets ₹ 1,394 crore this year

Telangana is a fast-urbanising State and hence, the Government of Telangana, recognising the need for developing urban areas in a planned manner, has been spending close to ₹3,000 crore through the Telangana Urban Finance Infrastructure Corporation (TUFIDC) to improve municipal infrastructure.

In Monday’s budget presented by Finance Minister T. Harish Rao, a sum of ₹1,394 crore has been proposed under the ‘Pattana Pragathi’ programme. All the municipalities are being provided financial assistance every month under this to provide safe drinking water, Urban Mission Bhagiratha programme and to enhance the green cover, all the municipalities and corporations have to spend 10% of their budget towards green initiatives.

It was pointed out that a new Municipal Act was brought in and after the introduction of TS- bPASS, getting building permissions has become easy. If the area is upto 75 square yards, no building permission is required. For areas which are up to 500 square metres, one can get building permissions online with self-certification through a single window.

Construction of integrated veg and non-veg markets in the cities is going on at a brisk pace. and to convert the the legacy municipal solid waste into fertiliser, a programme of bio mining is being taken up in 123 municipalities with an outlay of ₹276 crore. Similar to rural areas, even in towns, ‘Vaikunta dhamams’ are being constructed.

In 141 municipalities to increase the green cover 1,602 nurseries are being established. LED streetlights are also provided in all the municipalities. Last year, Telangana municipalities had bagged 12 awards in different categories under the Swacch Sarvekshan programme of the Central Government.

The socio-economic survey presented to the Assembly showed that as of 2022, the estimated share of Telangana’s population living in urban areas is 46.8%. It means TS is more urbanised than India as a whole, where only 34.7% of the total population lives in urban areas.

The population projections published by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare showed that Telangana is also urbanising faster than the rest of India combined, and the share of urban residents in the State’s population is expected to reach 57.3% by 2036.