Ramchandran was in Ahmedabad on Monday to review the progress of Jnnurm projects and had convened meetings with officials of Rajasthan and Goa. Ramchandran said that out of the 27 projects recently approved in the state under the Jnnurm, 23 have been completed on time. Most projects deal with water supply, sewerage, BRTS and storm water drains.

“Gujarat has assured that the additional 20 projects that were approved apart from the 27 earlier, would be completed by 2011-12. The centre had earmarked a grant of Rs 2,365 crore out of which JNNURM has allotted Rs 1, 370 crore for Gujarat,” Ramchandran said.

The review committee acknowledged the fact that as promised, the stamp duty in Gujarat has been brought down to 4.9 per cent and decentralisation has been brought out in urban local bodies. Gujarat needs to bring in the rent control reforms by the end of this year. This will open up a large stock of land for affordable housing,” says Ramchandran.

“We are in dialogue with World Bank (WB) for an assistance programme for development of urban infrastructure on the lines of Jnnurm. Finance ministry has indicated that the cost of the programme could go up to one billion dollar or about Rs 5,000 crore,” Ramachandran said.