Union Housing and Urban Affairs ministry has told a parliamentary standing committee that states must assess infrastructure gaps in urban piped water supply and prepare project proposals based on future demand projections. The guidance was set out in a reply to recommendations from the Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs, chaired by Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, which presented its action taken report in the Lok Sabha. The ministry said the approach aims to align investment with long term urban growth and service delivery needs.

The ministry advised that states should take into account population growth, urban expansion and service level benchmarks when preparing proposals. Saturation plans are required to be prepared in accordance with technical norms and planning parameters prescribed in the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation manuals. Those manuals provide standard methodologies for estimating present and future water demand and for designing corresponding infrastructure.

A utility has been developed on the AMRUT 2.0 platform to assess gaps in urban piped water supply and the investment required to build infrastructure, the ministry told the committee. The panel appreciated the development of the assessment tool but asked the ministry to furnish consolidated data uploaded by the states and union territories along with the status of gap assessments undertaken so far. The ministry said AMRUT 2.0 encourages long term planning aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047.

The ministry indicated that the Government of India is promoting a multi pronged financing framework to augment investments in urban water infrastructure through central assistance, institutional financing and innovative mechanisms. States and cities are being encouraged to leverage public private partnerships to mobilise private sector investment, enhance operational efficiency and reduce the burden on public finances. The committee noted that it remained unclear whether a comprehensive nationwide assessment of infrastructure requirements vis a vis projections made by the High Powered Expert Committee has been completed or is under way. It recommended that an annual nationwide assessment of urban water infrastructure initiatives is needed to evaluate progress, identify gaps and guide future investments.