Urban development and urban renewal: Focus of the new government: Naidu
In order to meet the demands of better urban living, the government has offered tax and non-tax incentives to promote investments in urban infrastructure and housing sectors. This includes REIT and InvITs and has also made provisions for increasing Plan outlay in the Budget 2014-15.
After the presentation of the budget, the Urban Development and Housing Minister Venkaiah Naidu has directed the senior officials of the two ministries to initiate action immediately for operationalizing the new initiatives.
India wants to live in better inhabitable conditions, and Naidu acknowledged the importance of urban development and urban renewal. The government wants to improve infrastructure in the cities and has come up with a plan of 100 smart cities in order to meet growing aspirations of the people for better urban living.
The government has increased the Plan Outlay for urban related projects by 251.44 % in the budget. The Plan outlay, which was Rs 6,561.34 crore in the Revised Estimate for 2013-14, has been hiked to Rs 16,497 crore for the current financial year of 2014-2015.
There is a separate budget of Rs 7,060 crore within this total amount of Rs 16, 497 crore for realizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of developing one hundred Smart Cities. Naidu mentioned that the government understands that a neo-middle class is emerging which has aspiration of better living standards, and the NaMo government is all set to fulfil the dreams of all those who have voted for their government.
Source- Financial Chronicle
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