About AMRUT

• To recast the urban landscape of the country, to make urban areas more livable and inclusive besides driving economic growth, the Prime Minister launched a centrally sponsored scheme namely Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) in 2015.
• It is implemented under the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs. 
• AMRUT seeks to lay a foundation to enable cities and towns to eventually grow into smart cities.

• The purpose of AMRUT is to
  • Ensure that every household has access to a tap with the assured supply of water and a sewerage connection.
  • Increase the amenity value of cities by developing greenery and well maintained open spaces (e.g. parks) and
  • Reduce pollution by switching to public transport or constructing facilities for non-motorized transport (e.g. walking and cycling). All these outcomes are valued by citizens, particularly women, and indicators and standards have been prescribed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA ) in the form of Service Level Benchmarks (SLBs).
• The Priority zone of the Mission is water supply followed by sewerage.

Components

• The components of the AMRUT consist of capacity building, reform implementation, water supply, sewerage and septage management, storm water drainage, urban transport and development of green spaces and parks.

Coverage

• Five hundred cities have been selected under AMRUT. The category of cities that have been selected under AMRUT is given below:
• All Cities and Towns with a population of over one lakh with notified Municipalities as per Census 2011, including Cantonment Boards (Civilian areas),

• All Capital Cities/Towns of States/ UTs, not covered in above ,

• All  Cities/  Towns  classified  as  Heritage  Cities  by  MoHUA  under  the  HRIDAY Scheme,

• Thirteen Cities and Towns on the stem of the main rivers with a population above 75,000 and less than 1 lakh, and

• Ten Cities from hill states, islands and tourist destinations (not more than one from each State).

Approach

• Implementation of this Mission will be linked to promotion of urban reforms such as 
  • e-governance, 
  • constitution of professional municipal cadre, 
  • devolving funds and functions to urban local bodies, 
  • review of Building bye-laws, 
  • improvement in assessment and collection of municipal taxes, 
  • credit rating of urban local bodies, 
  • energy and water audit and 
  • citizen-centric urban planning.

Funding

• Central assistance will be to the extent of 50 percent of project cost for cities and towns with a population of up to 10 lakh and one-third of the project cost for those with a population of above 10 lakh. 
• Central assistance will be released in three instalments in the ratio of 20:40:40 based on achievement of milestones indicated in State Annual Action Plans. 

Why in News?

• The Union Cabinet has approved the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation 2.0 (AMRUT 2.0) till 2025-26. 
• The decision is a step towards AatmaNirbhar Bharat and with the aim of making the cities water-secure and self-sustainable through a circular economy of water. This will be achieved by providing functional tap connections to all households, undertaking water source conservation, rejuvenation of water bodies and wells, recycling and re-use of treated used water and rainwater harvesting.
• AMRUT Mission was launched in June 2015 to facilitate ease of living to citizens in 500 cities by providing tap connections and sewer connections. So far, more than one crore ten lakh household tap connections and 85 lakh sewer connections have been provided.
• Taking forward the remarkable strides made under AMRUT, AMRUT 2.0, targets universal coverage of water supply by providing household tap connections in all four thousand 378 statutory towns.
• The mission targets to provide two crore 68 lakh tap connections and two crore 64 lakh sewer and septage connections to achieve the intended outcomes.