Reforming JNNURM :An Appraisal

Census 2011 shows that more than 31 per cent of India's population lives in urban areas. India's urban population is increasing faster than its rural population. The Government of India responded to the challenges of India's urbanisation realities by launching the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in 2005.

In order to achieve the objectives of the Mission, the strategy emphasised preparing City Development Plans, followed by Detailed Project Reports (DPRs). It was envisaged that funds from the central and state governments as grants-in-aid would flow directly to the nodal agency designated by the state. The funds for identified projects across cities were to be disbursed to the ULB/parastatal agency through the designated State Level Nodal Agency (SLNA) as a soft loan or grant-cum-loan or grant. The SLNA/ULBs in turn would leverage additional resources from other sources. In order to optimise life-cycle costs, private sector efficiencies were inducted in development, management, implementation and financing of projects through Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements.

JNNURM has two major components, namely, Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) and Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) anchored by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA) together. The Central Project Sanctioning Committee evaluates the project and sanctions funds as per the recommendation of the State Level Steering Committee. Fund management and monitoring of progress at the state level is done by the SLNA which directly deals with the Mission Directorate. Five years after JNNURM had been initiated, the Ministry of Urban Development wanted to evaluate the impact of the programme and PRIA (in collaboration with Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd) conducted an appraisal of the Mission across 3 states and 2 Union Territories.

Objectives

• Work as a JNNURM Reform Appraisal Agency for the appraisal and monitoring of implementation of reforms at the ULB/parastatal agency/state government level
• To complete the appraisals of the identified cities
• To submit a report to help enhance deliverables under the Mission

Geographical spread

States of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli

Key components

Five cycles of visits to appraise the progress of JNNURM in the selected states. The first cycle of visits was undertaken in July 2010 and appraised the progress through June 2010; the second cycle was undertaken in January 2011 and appraised progress made till December 2010; the third cycle was undertaken in July 2011 and appraise the progress made through March 2011; the fourth cycle of visits was undertaken in November 2011 and appraise the progress made through September 2011; and the final (fifth) cycle of appraisal was done during the months of February and March 2012.

A two level approach to assess the implementation of reforms was adopted. The first level dealt with the quantitative formats developed after initial deliberations and inputs from the Ministry of Urban Development in June-July 2010. The second level of assessment was developed by Deloitte following an extensive review of the key outcomes of the 23 reforms and the processes to be followed to achieve the reforms. This assessment was qualitative and output driven.

Key outputs

• Preparation of reform status reports of the states and Union Territories till the JNNURM mission period
• Documentation of best practices and bottlenecks

Key learnings

• In-depth understanding of the implementation and progress of JNNURM, a flagship programme undertaken to manage the urban development of India
• Learnings about the progress made by the different municipalities on social accountability mechanisms

Year/period

2010 to 2012

Client

Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India