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

Wednesday, 05 April 2017 11:44 administrator
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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.