Five years after the launch of AMRUT 2.0 the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs urged MoHUA to expedite sewerage and septage management projects. It noted that of 594 approved projects, with a total approved cost of Rs 683.09 billion (bn), only 104 projects, or 17.51 per cent, have been completed while 398 projects, or 67 per cent, remain under implementation. The report was chaired by Telugu Desam Party Member of Parliament Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy.

The panel noted that 502 projects have reached the awarded or grounded stage but 38 projects involving an approved cost of Rs 75.64 billion (bn) remain at the tender stage. It said the slow pace of implementation under AMRUT and AMRUT 2.0 is delaying planned expansion of sanitation infrastructure and undermining urban sanitation outcomes in statutory towns. The committee urged removal of administrative and procedural impediments to speed execution.

The committee found that fund release to states has been sluggish. Against the total Central Assistance commitment of Rs 660.60 billion (bn) under AMRUT and AMRUT 2.0 only Rs 227.63 billion (bn), or 34.46 per cent, has been released so far and this could affect timely creation of treatment capacity, sewerage connectivity and septage management systems in rapidly urbanising areas. It called for closer monitoring of fund flows and identification of projects where release is lagging.

MoHUA said delays stemmed from tendering, land acquisition, statutory clearances, contractor issues, changes in project scope and limited technical capacity at urban local bodies, and stressed that projects are long gestation and require centre state coordination. The committee recommended milestone based monitoring and stricter timelines for states and union territories given the mission now ends on 31 March 2027, and asked the ministry to identify where fund release is lagging. AMRUT 2.0 was launched in October 2021 and had an initial outlay of Rs 3 trillion (tn), including a central outlay of Rs 767.60 billion (bn).