The world's oldest city, Varanasi, will soon get a makeover. The city is one of the 100 places set to receive a huge sum to turn it into a smart city with affordable housing, better sanitation facilities and transportation.
To achieve this end, the government has plans to triple the steel production in India to make the country the world's second biggest producer of steel after Japan.
India's biggest producer, JSW steel Ltd. will build two new plants in Jharkhand and Odisha and expand the existing ones to double its size by 2030. Even Tata steel has sought environmental clearances to expand its two plants to four million tons capacity per year.
Need for steel
Jaipur, Kanpur and Lucknow are the other cities due for an upgrade. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mind is set on transforming his constituency, Varanasi.
The city houses 1.2 million people. About six million tourists visit the place which suffers from inadequate urban facilities and proper sewage system.
The local government reportedly has earmarked Rs 2,500 crore to construct houses, bury the shabby cables and wires that clutter the streets, install solar panels and upgrade the ghats by 2020-21. And to accomplish this, the city will require a lot of steel.
According to Sanak Mishra, the secretary general of India Steel Association, the steel consumption will almost triple by 2030. He also said India will overtake the US as the world's second biggest consumer.
'India growth'
A Singapore-based analyst at S&P Global ratings, Vishal Kulkarni, said although the demand for steel will increase "but it will not be like China growth, it will be more like India growth", according to an NDTV report.
So far, the government has earmarked Rs 1.9 lakh crore for 90 cities with helpings from the central, state and local bodies, the Ministry of Urban development stated in June.
This means most local municipalities will have to raise money. Pune municipal corporation had put forth a bond- the country's first municipal bond - to raise Rs 200 crore in June. More cities will follow.
Although India's general debt level is 'significantly' high and there stands a possibility of a blowout in India's current account deficit, the investors do not seem spooked by the idea. Eventually Pune had received six times the amount.
This came as a breath of fresh air for the steel makers from India and abroad after the worst price meltdown in decades. Raising the demand for infrastructure, construction and auto making is estimated to take India's annual average growth to 9% between 2017 and 2021, Livemint quoted a BMI research.
"Development of the city's overstretched infrastructure will be a hard job, but the willpower is there and with Modi leading the way, he will ensure that modern development will go hand in hand with conserving our heritage," Varanasi Mayor Ram Gopal Mohley said.
