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.

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.

BENGALURU: The state government seems to be making yet another push for restructuring Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike into five smaller city corporations. Having been unsuccessful in its earlier attempts, it does not want to leave anything to chance and has already begun the ground work.

The 100 wards of Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) were expanded to 198 under BBMP in 2007 with the inclusion of 110 CMC and TMC areas. With the IT boom, the real estate sector grew and the city expanded rapidly in geographical area.

It was then that the government stressed that one mayor and one commissioner would not be enough for the city.

On Monday, Bengaluru Development Minister K J George held a meeting with Mayor Padmavathi and BBMP officials on restructuring the existing eight Palike zones to 10. “We have asked the BBMP restructuring committee to make a few changes and we expect to get the report in a week’s time. We will then issue a notification,’’ George said.

BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad said the panel had recommended 10 zones. “In the meeting, it was brought to the notice of George that Rajarajeshwarinagar and Yeshwanthpur assembly constituencies come under three different zones, while Bengaluru South constituencies come under two. It will be problematic if one assembly constituency comes under two or more zones. Hence, the panel was told to rework this,’’ he said.

However, sources in the Urban Development said restructuring of zones will be applicable only for the current term of the BBMP council.

The sources said the Patil Committee is now working on  drafting and collecting data for delimitation of wards. The committee has recommended that the population in each ward should be around 35,000. The affairs of the ward can be managed even if the population touches 45,000-50,000. This will ensure better coordination between local elected representatives and officials. The committee is also working on the Cadre and Recruitment Rule for systematic working of the five proposed corporations, they said.