Chief Secretary reviews flagship urban development schemes across J&K

Jammu, Apr 21: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, Monday chaired a high level meeting of Housing &Urban Development Department (H&UDD) to review different urban development schemes and programmes being implemented across the Union Territory.
The meeting besides Commissioner Secretary, H&UDD was attended by Commissioner, SMC; Commissioner, JMC; MD, Housing Board; MD, NULM along with other senior officers of the department.
The Chief Secretary appreciated the scale and scope of urban transformation under H&UDD. He emphasized timely execution, inter-departmental synergy and robust monitoring of all the schemes. He stressed that these reforms and infrastructure projects must translate into improved quality of life for urban residents across the UT.
He enjoined upon the concerned department to expedite the work on the utility projects like water supply under AMRUT and sanitation under SBM (U). He made out that these projects once completed would improve the living standards of the residents substantially.
The Chief Secretary had a detailed review of progress made on the ongoing flagship projects under the Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT 2.0, PMAY-Urban, PM eBus Sewa, DAY-NULM, SBM 2.0, CITIIS 2.0 and other major initiatives of the department.
Commissioner Secretary, H&UDD, Mandeep Kaur, gave a detailed outlook of the projects completed and the ongoing works across the cities and ULBs of J&K. She also apprised the meeting about the steps taken and those in pipeline to enhance the beauty and sanitation of urban areas of the UT.
About the Srinagar Smart City projects, CEO, SSCL, Owais Ahmad, informed that the works span infrastructure modernization, heritage restoration, mobility enhancement and public space improvement. He added that 161 projects worth budgeted cost of Rs 3634 crore have been taken in hand under Smart City Mission. Out of these, 11 works are being executed with a cost of Rs 203.47 crore. These included construction of Traditional Souq Market and Craft Centre at Batamaloo, Jhelum Waterfront Development Phase-2, Gole Market -Karan Nagar Road Development, Development of Amenity Blocks, interpretation facility centre, cafe deck and viewing towers along Shalimar Canal.
Regarding Jammu Smart City Limited (JSCL), CEO, JSCL, Devansh Yadav, informed the meeting that a total of127 projects were taken in hand at a budgeted cost of Rs 3581 crore. The ongoing 7 projects costing around Rs 529 crore included Tawi River Front Development, Oceanarium at Bag-e-Bahu, Complete Street Development from Canal Road to Talab Tilo and Waste 2 Wonder Park and others.
As part of the Tawi Riverfront Development Project (TRF), it was revealed that the interception and diversion of nallahs at both left and right banks has been completed.
It was further divulged that 100 AC eBuses each have been approved for both the cities under PM eBus Sewa (via Challenge Method). For the same, financial assistance from GoI to the tune of 100% for ‘Behind-the-Meter’ power infrastructure and 90% (up to Rs 20 Cr) for depot infrastructure is being provided by MoHUA.
Moreover, the DPRs for Jammu Depot Infrastructure (JSCL) has been framed costing around Rs 16.72 crore and for 6.6 MW power substation a DPR worth Rs 8.51 crore has also been formulated. Similarly, for Srinagar Depot Infrastructure a DPR of Rs 14.50 crore has been formulated besides DPR worth Rs 5.78 crore for Power sector has been made through the concerned agencies. All the DPRs have been approved by the Central Steering Committee, the meeting was informed.
With respect to progress on housing projects under PMAY-U, MD, Housing Board, Shahbaz Mirza, informed the meeting that under BLC Vertical (2021–24) 27,439 houses have been completed with a fund utilization of Rs 496.15 crore including a central assistance of Rs 40 crore released in Feb–Mar 2025.
Regarding PMAY-U 2.0 expansion, a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with MOHUA stands signed to implement the scheme in all 78 municipal bodies of the UT. It was also given out that a baseline survey for identification of houseless individual/ families had also been initiated. To ensure that the benefit of PMAY reaches the section of people who don’t have permanent house to live in, a digital app had been developed to survey the urban areas. Additionally, the Master trainers were imparted training in all the districts and committees structured for verification and selection of eligible beneficiaries.
Regarding the financial assistance under PMAY-Urban 2.0, it was said that Rs 2.25 lakh as Central Assistance and UT share of Rs 0.25 lakh under BLC and AHP vertical of the scheme would be given to the beneficiaries.
Regarding progress on SBM-U 2.0 (Swachh Bharat Urban Mission), the meeting was apprised that a Material Recovery Facility for dry waste, compost/CBG plants for wet waste, facilities for C&D waste, bioremediation of legacy waste and STPs for Used Water Management for the two Municipal Corporations and 78 ULBs are under different stages of implementation. It was further added that all the 78 ULBs had been declared “Safaimitra Surakshit Sheher” by the GoI.
MD, NULM revealed that out of a total of Rs 61.77 crore received funds Rs 55.54 crore have been utilized, so far. She also gave out that a new mission Deendayal Jan AajeevikaYojana (Shehri) is under design to replace NULM with components like Livelihoods, Skilling, SHGs, Enterprise Promotion, Local Action for which the deliverables, timelines and institutional mechanism being finalized here.
On PMSVANidhi, it was said that against the target of 25,856 street vendors, 23,695 street vendors have been covered. First tranche of loan was given to 17,219 applicants, 2nd tranche to 7611 and third to 2,952 and letter of recommendation to 22,504 applicants.
The meeting was apprised that a revamped online Building Permission System is also under rollout, to be ready within 2 months.
The meeting also discussed the Srinagar Water Transport project initiated for Inland Waterways from Anantnag to Wular Lake via Jhelum and Dal Lake. For the same partnership with Kochi Water Metro for peer learning and strategic support is being finalized. Moreover, the tendering for infrastructure and operations is also underway, as was given out in the meeting.