Under the initiative of Credit Rating of urban local bodies, 85 cities have launched the process and the same has been completed in respect of 12.
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has got A- – rating (positive credit worthy).
All these 85 cities would be given credit rating by March next year.
Pune and Ahmedabad are in advanced stage of going for municipal bonds.
As a part of handholding the States and Urban Local Bodies for speedy execution of projects under new initiatives, the Ministry of Urban Development has identified substantial sources of resources from various domestic and multi-lateral lending agencies.
This includes: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank- US $ 5 billion, Asian Development Bank- US $ 1 billion, Japanese International Cooperation Agency- US $ 500 million, BRICS Bank- US $ 500 million per city, AFD-Euro 100-200 million. HUDCO is likely to support Smart City Mission with Rs.10,000 cr.
Reforms introduced like involvement of States and ULBs in conceptualization of new urban missions, autonomy to States in formulation of projects, their appraisal and approval, competition based selection of cities etc., have begun to yield positive results in the form of speedy clearance of investments.