Nirmala Sitharaman Union Finance Minister of India stated in her Budget speech that the government will establish a Rs 10,000 crores per year Urban Infrastructure Developing Fund (UIDF) to be utilised for building infrastructure in Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities. The fund will be created, according to the minister, using the shortfall in loans to the prioritised sectors.
The National Housing Financial institution will be in charge of managing this, and public organisations will use it to build urban development in Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities. States will be urged to use funding from the 15th Finance Commission’s grants and other programmes to implement reasonable user fees while accessing the UIDF. We anticipate providing Rs 10,000 crore annually for this purpose, she added.
States & cities will be asked to make changes to urban development and take action to make towns more sustainable, according to Sitharaman. She went on to say that this calls for the efficient use of land resources, enough support for urban infrastructure, the development of transit, expanded access to and price of urban land, and fair opportunity for all.
She stated that the reforms would include ring-fencing user fees on urban infrastructure and property tax governance improvements. She said that cities would receive incentives to increase their creditworthiness for municipal borrowing.
In 2023–24, the ministry would spend Rs 23,175.01 crore, or around the same as the BE amount of Rs 23,875 crore, on Metro & mass fast transit system projects, along with the National Capital Region Transit Corporation, which is carrying out the Delhi–Meerut fast transit project.
