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The State is set to carry out urban reforms including modernisation of building bylaws, implementation of local area plan and creation of sponge cities to be eligible for the Union Government’s Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment Scheme for 2022-23. Urban reforms are one of the components of the scheme, for which financial assistance is provided to the State Governments.
The other urban reforms identified include implementation of transit-oriented development, adoption of transferable development rights. As per the Union Government’s guidelines, Kerala comes under the group III category of States and is eligible to get a central assistance of upto ₹500 crore under the component of urban reforms for the scheme. For claiming the incentives, the State Government has to provide the status report of urban reforms as well as the committed timelines for the preparation of proposals as part of the implementation of reforms.
As part of modernising building bylaws, the State will integrate departments granting various NOCs with the Intelligent Building Plan Management System (IBPMS), that is already being implemented in many local bodies in the State. The Government will frame a new rule for transferable development rights next year. Local area plans will be implemented in urban local bodies in Kozhikode, Thrissur and Palakkad.
Transit oriented development will be incorporated in the master plans for cities with a population of more than five lakhs. Under this, the draft master plans for Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode Corporation after integrating transit oriented development plans will be published by March 2023. As part of the plan for creation of sponge cities, integrated water resource management plans will be prepared for the conservation and rejuvenation of water resources and for waste water reuse. Water-sensitive urban design will be promoted in major cities. A State-level steering committee and a sub-committee have been constituted to oversee the activities.
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