The Minister of State in the Ministry of Urban Development Deepa Dasmunshi informed the Rajya Sabha that under the second stimulus package announced by the Government of India in January, 2009, the states as a one-time measure have been provided financial assistance for purchase of buses for their urban transport system under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM).
Under this Scheme total 15,260 modern intelligent transport enabled buses were sanctioned to 61 mission cities with the central government share (Additional Central Assistance) of around Rs 2,088.80 crore.
In order to provide better transport, projects relating to Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) were approved for 10 cities namely Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Indore, Jaipur, Pune-Pimpri-Chinchwad, Rajkot, Surat, Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam and Kolkata under the JnNURM, at a total estimated cost of Rs 5,211.60 crore.
Admissible Additional Central Assistance is Rs 2,373.36 crore. Bihar and Punjab have so far not utilised the 1st installment of Additional Central Assistance released to them for procurement of buses.
There is no complaint regarding mis-utilization of funds by any state, the minister said. However, some complaints have been received in case of Nagpur and Kolkata regarding non-compliance of bus funding guidelines in operation of buses sanctioned to these cities under JNNURM. They have been directed to take remedial action on these complaints, the minister said.
