Kochi: The
Union Government has extended the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban
Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for two more years to complete ongoing projects
and reforms in various states. This has turned out to be a boon for
Kochi because several JNNURM projects had failed due to the
Corporation’s inability to conceive them properly.

The
Corporation will have start afresh and convince the central urban
development ministry to give funds. The government order extending
JNNURM to 2015 has given time till March 31, 2014 to states to submit
new projects. The civic body had been rebuked for under utilisation of
JNNURM phase-1 funds, but apart from bad conception, major reasons were
were flaws in technique, design and execution. Another stumbling block
were land acquisition issues.

However
the corporation completed JNNURM funded works like the Edappally-High
Court Road and junction improvement at a cost of Rs 15.53 crores and
development of Sahodaran Ayyappan Road and junctions spending Rs 8.39
crores.

The drainage
works in various parts of the city also are nearing completion. No other
works under the solid waste management, water supply, sewerage, surface
water drainage, urban road transport and heritage categories
materialised during the last seven years.

According to the
2011 Census, the urban population grew to 377 million showing an average
growth rate of 2.76 percent per annum during 2001-2011. Urbanisation as
a whole increased from 27.7 percent in 2001 to 31.1 percent in 2011 –
an increase of 3.4 percentage points.  JNNURM was therefore launched in
December, 2005, to provide assistance to state governments to improve
amenities in cities and towns.