AMRUT Mission: Enhancing Urban Infrastructure and Service Delivery

Cities in the country are growing at an unprecedented pace, and with this growth comes a mounting pressure on basic services like clean water, sewerage, and public spaces. To tackle these challenges head-on, the government launched a dedicated urban renewal programme in 2015 that has since reshaped how hundreds of cities plan, finance, and deliver essential infrastructure. The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, better known as AMRUT, has become one of the most ambitious flagship interventions in urban governance, aiming to guarantee every household a tap, a sewer connection, and a greener neighbourhood to live in.

What is the AMRUT Mission? 🔗

The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation was launched on 25 June 2015 by the Prime Minister, alongside the Smart Cities Mission and the Housing for All scheme. It was designed as a centrally sponsored scheme under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, targeting basic civic infrastructure in 500 selected cities and towns across the country.

The mission was a successor to the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), but with a sharper focus. Rather than funding broad urban development, AMRUT concentrated on five core infrastructure sectors: water supply, sewerage and septage management, stormwater drainage, non-motorised urban transport, and green spaces and parks. The total central outlay for the first phase was Rs. 50,000 crore, spread over the period from FY 2015-16 to FY 2019-20, though implementation was extended to March 2021.

How cities were selected 🔗

The mission covered all cities and towns with a population of more than one lakh as per the 2011 Census, along with capital cities of states and union territories that did not meet that threshold, plus heritage cities identified under the HRIDAY scheme. Together, these 500 urban centres accounted for roughly 60 percent of the country’s urban population, giving the programme significant reach from the start.

Core objectives of the mission 🔗

The design of AMRUT rests on three simple but ambitious promises. First, every household in a mission city should have access to a tap with assured water supply and a sewerage connection. Second, cities should become more liveable through well-maintained parks and green open spaces. Third, urban pollution should be reduced by promoting public transport and building facilities for non-motorised commuting such as walking and cycling paths.

Within this framework, universal coverage of water supply and sewerage services was given first charge on the mission’s resources, recognising that these are the most fundamental services a city must provide. A maximum of 2.5 percent of the project cost could be allocated to developing parks with child-friendly and elderly-friendly features.

Financial architecture and fund allocation 🔗

AMRUT operates as a centrally sponsored scheme, which means the central and state governments share the cost of projects. Funds were distributed among states and union territories using a formula that gave 50:50 weightage to each state’s urban population and the number of statutory towns within it. This ensured that both densely populated urban states and those with a wider distribution of smaller towns received equitable support.

State Annual Action Plans (SAAPs) were the principal instruments through which cities accessed funds. Each state consolidated Service Level Improvement Plans from individual cities into a single action plan, which the Ministry then appraised and approved. Over the mission period, SAAPs worth Rs. 77,640 crore were approved, of which the committed central assistance was around Rs. 35,990 crore.

Key achievements under AMRUT 🔗

A decade into its operation, AMRUT has produced measurable improvements in urban service delivery. The results are particularly striking in water and sanitation, the two areas that received top priority.

Water and sewerage coverage 🔗

According to the Cabinet note on AMRUT 2.0, the first phase delivered 1.1 crore household tap connections and 85 lakh sewer and septage connections, benefiting over four crore people. Sewage treatment capacity of 6,000 MLD was planned, of which 1,210 MLD had already been created, with provision for reusing 907 MLD of treated sewage.

Later government reviews have reported even higher numbers. A ten-year review of the mission placed the total at 134 lakh water tap connections and 102 lakh sewer connections, taking the programme close to its universal coverage targets in many cities.

Green spaces and urban environment 🔗

Parks and open spaces were a central part of the mission’s liveability agenda. By the time the second phase was announced, around 1,820 parks spread over 3,600 acres had been developed, with another 1,800 acres of greening work in progress. For citizens in densely packed municipal areas, these new recreational spaces have provided tangible quality-of-life improvements that went beyond pipes and sewers.

Energy efficiency and street lighting 🔗

Under the reform component, 62.8 lakh conventional streetlights were replaced with energy-efficient LED lights out of a target of 97.9 lakh. This switch was estimated to save about 137.5 crore units of electricity per year and cut carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 11 lakh tonnes annually, making AMRUT a quiet contributor to the country’s climate goals as well.

The reform agenda: rewiring urban governance 🔗

What makes AMRUT distinctive among urban schemes is not just its infrastructure outlay but its ambitious reform agenda. The mission mandated 11 reforms comprising 54 milestones, which states and urban local bodies had to achieve over four years. Ten percent of the annual budget was set aside as an incentive pool for states that successfully implemented these reforms, turning governance improvement into a competitive exercise.

Online Building Permission System 🔗

One of the most visible governance reforms has been the Online Building Permission System, which replaced opaque counter-based approvals with a transparent digital workflow. The system has been rolled out in over 2,400 cities, including more than 450 AMRUT cities. This single reform has contributed to a dramatic improvement in the country’s ranking on construction permits in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report, rising from 181 in 2018 to 27 in 2020.

Credit ratings and municipal bonds 🔗

Perhaps the most transformative reform has been around municipal finance. Credit rating exercises were completed in 468 of the 485 cities where they were commissioned. Out of these, 163 cities obtained an Investible Grade Rating, and 36 received a rating of A- or above, signalling reasonable fiscal health. Following these ratings, ten urban local bodies – including Ahmedabad, Amravati, Pune, Visakhapatnam, and Lucknow – raised a combined Rs. 3,840 crore through municipal bonds. This marked a quiet but meaningful shift: cities are no longer solely dependent on state and central grants but can tap the capital market directly.

Capacity building 🔗

The mission recognised that infrastructure creation alone would not sustain change without trained personnel running the systems. Against a target of training 45,000 urban functionaries and elected representatives, the mission exceeded its goal with over 52,000 people trained across the country. This has contributed to a stronger base of urban managers, engineers, and councillors who can plan, execute, and maintain complex urban projects.

AMRUT 2.0: the water-secure city 🔗

Building on the first phase, AMRUT 2.0 was launched on 1 October 2021 for the period from FY 2021-22 to FY 2025-26. The second phase has a much larger indicative outlay of around Rs. 2,77,000 crore, of which the central share is Rs. 76,760 crore. Its ambition is also bigger: universal water tap coverage in all 4,378 statutory towns through 2.68 crore new connections, and 100 percent sewerage and septage coverage in the 500 cities covered under the first phase through 2.64 crore sewer connections.

The second phase introduces the idea of a circular economy of water. Every city is required to prepare a City Water Balance Plan that maps existing water sources, current consumption, future demand, and losses, and then designs projects to close the gaps through rejuvenation of water bodies, rainwater harvesting, and reuse of treated sewage. Projects are funded in three tranches, with the final instalment tied to outcomes actually achieved.

Pey Jal Survekshan and technology mission 🔗

To track performance and encourage healthy competition, the mission runs Pey Jal Survekshan, a survey that assesses equitable water distribution, wastewater reuse, and mapping of water bodies across cities. A Technology Sub-Mission was also launched to identify proven global technologies in the water sector and make them available to Indian urban local bodies.

Persistent challenges 🔗

Despite its scale and ambition, the AMRUT experience also reveals the difficulty of transforming urban governance through a top-down mission. Analyses of the programme have pointed to a project-oriented rather than holistic approach, with limited organic participation by elected city governments in designing and prioritising interventions.

Overlap with other schemes, particularly Swachh Bharat Mission and Smart Cities Mission, has sometimes created coordination challenges and duplication of effort. The narrow focus of AMRUT 2.0 on water and sewerage means that issues like air pollution, which deteriorated across many AMRUT cities, had to be addressed separately through the National Clean Air Programme. Urban water stress is also growing rapidly, with a NITI Aayog projection warning that 40 percent of the population may lack access to drinking water by 2030, underscoring that AMRUT’s targets, though large, may still not be enough.

Fragmented institutional arrangements within cities – where water, sewerage, roads, and planning are handled by separate agencies with overlapping mandates – continue to dilute the impact of mission funds. Strengthening the capacity and autonomy of urban local bodies, so that they can plan cities holistically rather than execute centrally designed projects, remains an unfinished agenda.

Why AMRUT matters for urban governance 🔗

For students of urban governance and public policy, AMRUT is a rich case study of how centrally sponsored schemes can drive both infrastructure creation and institutional reform. It has delivered millions of new connections and reshaped the conversation around municipal finance, credit ratings, digital governance, and outcome-based funding. At the same time, it highlights the limits of any mission that bypasses elected city governments and treats cities as implementation units rather than as decision-makers.

As the country moves towards a future where more than half its people will live in urban areas, the AMRUT experience will continue to shape how cities are planned, financed, and served. The combination of basic services, reform incentives, and a push towards water-secure cities marks a significant departure from earlier schemes, even as deeper questions about urban democracy and institutional design remain open.

What do you think? Do you believe schemes like AMRUT, designed and funded largely at the centre, can deliver truly responsive urban services, or should more authority and resources flow directly to elected municipal governments? And in your own city, which of the mission’s five focus areas – water, sewerage, drainage, transport, or green spaces – do you think needs the most urgent attention?

References

1. https://mohua.gov.in/cms/amrut.php
2. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1885837
3. https://ulb.arunachal.gov.in/schemes.html
4. https://www.manoramayearbook.in/current-affairs/india/2021/10/13/amrut-atal-mission-for-rejuvenation-and-urban-transformation.html
5. https://www.studyiq.com/articles/amrut-scheme/
6. http://amrut.gov.in/content/
7. http://amrut.gov.in/content/innerpage/about-reforms.php
8. https://www.investindia.gov.in/team-india-blogs/swachh-bharat-20-and-amrut-20-towards-cleaner-and-water-secure-cities-part-2-2
9. https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/cabinet-approves-the-atal-mission-for-rejuvenation-and-urban-transformation-amrut-2-0-till-2025-26/
10. https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/amrut-atal-mission-for-rejuvenation-and-urban-transformation-scheme
11. https://www.dhyeyaias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/transforming-urban-indias-infrastructure-amidst-challenges