Where Do Govt's Infra-Focused Projects Stand In 2016?

Improving India's infrastructure has been one of the focus areas of the current government. As soon as Narendra Modi took charge as the prime minister of the country, his government announced ambitious infrastructure-focused projects that made India trend worldwide.

What has been the progress made in this regard in two years? Here is a look at some of the projects and their implementation:

• The Modi government decided to spend Rs 2.72-lakh crore for improving urban infrastructure during January-December 2016. Of this, Rs 1.32 lakh crore was released for developing Smart Cities, Rs 30,657 crore under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Rs 48,773 crore under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) and Rs 22,118 crore for new Metro projects.

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• The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government plans to develop 100 smart cities to push urban growth. The mission was launched in 2015, and, after three rounds of selection, 60 cities have been granted financial assistance from the Centre for a makeover.

• The Swachh Bharat Mission in urban areas got close to a half-way mark of mission targets in building toilets during 2016, says a Press Trust of India report. Of the set target of 66 lakh toilets in individual household toilets, about 27.82 lakh have been built by 2016. While 5.08 lakh community and public toilet seats are required to be built by 2019, already 1.07 lakh toilet seats have been built.

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• About 482 cities became open-defecation free in 2016. In fact, all cities and towns of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Sikkim have been declared open defecation-free in 2016.

• The Centre approved an investment of Rs 30,657 crore under the Atal Mission during 2016. This money would be used in improving water supply, sewerage networks, urban transport across cities.

• In 2016, the Centre gave its approval for building 9.02 lakh affordable houses for the urban poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) scheme.

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• At a total investment of Rs 22,118 crore, Metro projects of over 60 km also got a go-ahead from the Centre. Of this, the 22-km Lucknow Metro received a grant of Rs 6,928 crore, the nine-km Chennai Metro Extension Rs 3,720 crore and the 31-km Pune Metro Rs 11,420 crore.

• Under the Heritage Infrastructure Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY), the work on projects worth about Rs 200 crore started in 2016.