NEW DELHI: Concerned with the slow implementation of water body rejuvenation projects under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0, a Parliamentary Panel has asked the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) to accelerate the completion of all sanctioned projects and set annual progress targets.

As per the report of the Standing Committee of Lok Sabha presented in Parliament on Friday, only 678 out of 3,032 projects have been completed. It also noted that despite extensive mapping of water bodies, rejuvenation plans have been prepared for only about 10.5 per cent of them under the scheme.

The Committee, in its report titled Review of AMRUT with special emphasis on urban drinking water, has also recommended the formulation of a National Urban Wastewater Reuse Policy on a priority basis, mandating time-bound adoption of state-level reuse policies and establishing robust systems for tracking actual reuse.

The Committee evaluated the adequacy of financial investments under AMRUT 1.0 and 2.0 in comparison with the projections made by the High-Powered Expert Committee (HPEC) in 2011, which estimated ₹3.2 lakh crore for urban water supply infrastructure and ₹5.5 lakh crore for Operations and Maintenance (O&M) over a 20-year period (2012–2031).

The panel observed that while AMRUT has led to a notable scaling-up of investments in urban water supply infrastructure, the sanctioned amount still meets only about half of the requirement projected by HPEC. It therefore suggested that the ministry take immediate steps to bridge the financing gap, and assess additional financial requirements and investments with a long-term perspective up to 2047.