Capacity building of urban local bodies is another focus area for the Government, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said on Wednesday.

“There is a clear self-realisation on the part of urban local bodies and even on the part of states that business as usual approach will not help in recasting our urban landscape to make urban areas more liveable,” he said.

Urban local bodies are taking to SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis to evolve smart city vision and plans, Naidu said at a session on ‘Renewing Infrastructure Finance’ at the National Strategy Day on India, jointly organised by the World Economic Forum and Confederation of Indian Industry here on Wednesday.

Since the announcement of the Smart City mission, there has been a domestic and global upsurge of interest to partner the execution of new schemes, the Minister said. “A total of 28 foreign companies from 19 countries are working on such plans for 42 of the 98 cities included in Smart City Mission. We need to take advantage of this interest through meaningful and workable partnerships and we are at it,” he added.

The Government is also making efforts to promote various modes of financing of infrastructure in urban areas including Municipal Bonds for which necessary guidelines have been issued recently, Naidu said, adding that credit rating of urban local bodies has been made integral part of reforms under new urban missions to enable access to capital markets.

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