Hyderabad: The Telangana state government seems to have failed to learn its lessons even after losing the smart cities race in the first phase recently. On the other hand, the AP government is far ahead of TS.
The TS government is sitting on works in cities/towns identified by the Centre under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) scheme.
Though the Centre had approved Rs 200 crore in November 2015 to take up works in 10 major cities/towns in TS, the government is yet to prepare Detailed Project Reports.
While the deadline of March 31 to utilise these funds is fast approaching — after which the funds will lapse — officials are still struggling to prepare DPRs and accord approvals.
In AP, the chief secretary-headed committee had already approved the State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) worth Rs 662 crore.
Only six cities have DPRs ready
The chief secretary-headed committee has also submitted the proposals to the Centre, which has even released the first installment of Rs 66.29 crore.
Since the SAAP approval has been accorded, there is no risk of AP losing the Central funds even if they remain unutilised as they will be carried forward to the next year.
But in TS, the SAAP approval is yet to be accorded. The Centre has the power to penalise states that fail to release matching grants and utilise funds within the deadline.
It had issued guidelines in September 2015 and approved funds in November 2015. It had even sanctioned Rs 40 crore to prepare DPRs.
Out of 10 cities/towns, only six have prepared DPRs and secured approvals of the committee headed by the principal secretary of MAUD. However, these DPRs need to be get final approval by the SAAP. Later, tenders have to be called and finalised before executing the works.
