Hill Brothers Himachal Pradesh And Uttarakhand Appreciated For Progress In Implementation Of Urban Development Projects, Asked To Speed Up Completion

Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, the two hill states with Bharatiya Janata party-led governments, are making progress in the implementations of projects under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, (AMRUT).

In Uttarakhand, which is ranked 24th in AMRUT's rankings, there are 100 projects in the implementation stage. In all, 47 have been completed.
In Himachal Pradesh, ranked 15th, 41 are under implementation and 32 have been completed.

The two states have been advised to complete the projects under an extended deadline of 31 March, 2021 in order to avail the Central Assistance (90 per cent for the two hill states).

The two states have been requested to initiate activities under the Catch the Rain Campaign.

The “Catch The Rain” campaign comes from the National Water Mission (NWM) and encourages states and related stake-holders to take initiatives that "Catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls”. Rain Water Harvesting Structures (RWHS) and Rain Centres are the vital facets under it.

Uttarakhand has informed that it is has provided "more than 36 thousand new household water tap connections". Himachal Pradesh has provided "over 17 thousand new connections", and has met the target of 13,003 new household water tap connections.

The two states were advised to guard against "poor plumbing leading to leakages and suggested capacity building of the plumber etc."

Coming to sewer connections: Himachal Pradesh has provided 26,034 (target of 23,006 connections). Uttarakhand has provided 24,818 new connections and needs to speed up.

Both states have to work harder on replacing the existing street lights with LED lights. Himachal Pradesh has replaced 12,186 (target of 9,621). Uttarakhand has replaced 72,167 (target of 82,337).

Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have also implemented OBPS system (part of ‘Ease of Doing Business’) in their Mission cities.

The progress made by the two states has been appreciated by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra.