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Municipal Finance

Rs. 138.51 cr. annual fund for Kochi

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The Hidu        21.04.2017  

Rs. 138.51 cr. annual fund for Kochi

Award of Finance Commission is worth Rs. 49 crore

The Kochi Corporation will get an annual allocation of Rs. 138.51 crore from the State government for 2017-18 fiscal.

Of this, Rs. 49 crore will be allotted as general development fund and Rs. 81 crore as Special Component Plan fund. The award of the Finance Commission will come to Rs. 49 crore.

Road projects

Road protection fund projects will get Rs. 21 crore, while non-road projects will be allocated Rs. 10 crore, said a communication issued by Deputy Mayor T.J. Vinod.

A meeting of the corporation council, to be held on Friday, will discuss the draft proposals to be implemented by the civic body in the current financial year.

The projects that get the stamp of approval from the corporation council will be implemented in the city in 2017-18 fiscal.

 

City Corporation earns 'investment- worthy' rating By Express News Service | Published: 05th April 2017 12:55 AM | Last Updated: 05th April 2017 05:38 AM | A+A A- | Building, construction Image for represenational purpose| Reuters THIRUV

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The New Indian Express     05.04.2017

City Corporation earns 'investment- worthy' rating

Building, construction

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The City Corporation has been recognised as an investment-worthy urban local body in a credit rating process required for the implementation of the Central scheme Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT). With the rating, the Corporation would be in a position to avail loans from multilateral agencies such as Asian Development Bank and World Bank for implementing mega projects.

Bengaluru-based private credit rating agency Brick Work Rating India has assigned ‘BWR BBB’ rating to the Corporation with a ‘stable’ outlook. This means the Corporation is considered to have moderate degree of safety regarding timely servicing of financial obligations and carries moderate credit risk.

The rating factors in the civic service delivery standards maintained by the civic body, the infrastructure in place, the revenue surplus position over the last six years, economic base, high literacy rate and progress made in implementing key reforms. The rating is considered to be a boost for the civic body which is competing for the Smart City project. Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi share the same rating and are only two among the nine cities under the AMRUT scheme to get investment grade rating. The ratings starting from BWR AAA to BBB are considered to be investment grade.  

AMRUT scheme aims at providing basic services (water  supply, sewerage and urban transport) to households and  building amenities in cities which will improve the quality of life. The total outlay of AMRUT mission for the state from 2015 to 2020 is Rs 2,333.92 crore.


However, the rating agency has been critical of the Corporation in terms of its increasing dependence on Central and state government grants, low overall tax collection efficiency, inadequate managerial and technical capacity and limited resource mobilisation strategies. The AMRUT scheme remains a non-starter in the Corporation due to various reasons. “The scheme requires a consultant to monitor the projects. But the state high-powered steering committee is yet to decide on one. The delay makes it difficult to start projects such as multi-level parking, foot overbridges etc which were mentioned in last year’s budget,” said an officer.

 

No smart city tag for city but GHMC pays a whopping Rs 46 lakh for consultancy

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The New Indian Express     05.04.2017 

No smart city tag for city but GHMC pays a whopping Rs 46 lakh for consultancy

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad might have backed out of the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) giving in for Karimnagar’s inclusion, but the same has not prevented the cash-strapped Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation from shelling out a whopping `46.26 lakh towards consultancy services.

The GHMC Standing Committee approved the proposal and recommended the same to the state government a few days ago. It was as per the request of the Chief Minister that the Central Government replaced Hyderabad with Karimnagar for SCM last year. Warangal is another city selected by the Centre for the mission.

However, before Hyderabad was replaced from the SCM, the civic body had appointed consultant M/s Knight Frank (India) Private Limited for preparation of proposal for assisting GHMC to participate in the smart cities challenge. The consultant prepared proposals and submitted to GHMC and charged `40.40 lakh towards fee and `5.85 lakh towards service tax.

The above consultant was one among the 11 empanelled consultant listed by the Centre. The consultant prepared city-wide concept plan, draft smart city proposal and final city draft proposal.
On Dec 7, 2015, the consultant was verbally informed that state government has decided not to pursue the smart city challenge proposal for Greater Hyderabad. However, by that time most of the work for smart city challenge proposal was completed.

Since the GHMC had already engaged the consultant for preparation of smart city challenge proposal, the consultancy charges payable to the extent of work done, if any, be paid by GHMC, as per the state government instructions.

The consultant submitted the smart city challenge proposal as per the template of Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD) and the total work entrusted to them is complete and if the proposal was forwarded to MoUD, the consultant will be eligible for 100 per cent payment for consultancy from MoUD. However, the consultants agreed to receive 60 per cent of the contract price from GHMC, since the smart challenge proposal not forwarded to the Central Government.

SCM is an urban renewal and retrofitting programme launched by Central Government with a mission to develop 109 cities all over the country making them citizen friendly and sustainable in June 2015.

 


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