JNNURM to be renamed after Atal Bihari Vajpayee

New Delhi: After conferring ''Bharat Ratna'' – the country's highest civilian honour – on former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Narendra Modi government has reportedly decided to rename the 10-year old Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and name it after the veteran BJP leader.

According to reports, the Union Cabinet, chaired by PM Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved a proposal in this regard.

Union Cabinet also cleared 100 Smart City projects and old housing projects initiated by previous governments.

The renewed scheme will now be known as Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), according to media reports.

Like JNNURM, the renewed scheme will also be a 10-year programme with an investment of around Rs 2 lakh crore. Under it, 500 cities and towns will be rejuvenated.

JNNURM was supposed to be renewed last year. UPA-II had even done the preparatory work for the renewal of the scheme, however, as soon as the NDA government came into power, the new Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu proposed to launch the new scheme instead.

According to media reports, AMRUT will primarily, include the major components of JNNURM scheme only with the inclusion of few new additions as prescribed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The previous JNNURM scheme worked on components like treatment of sewage and garbage, augmentation of water supply, building roads and flyovers, but now,  it will also include digitisation and wi- fi zones in the cities too.