Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation 2.0

The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation 2.0 (AMRUT 2.0) is a centrally sponsored scheme administered by India's Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 October 2021 alongside the Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban 2.0. It succeeds the original AMRUT, which ran from June 2015 to March 2021 and covered 500 cities each with a population above one lakh. AMRUT 2.0 derives its mandate not from a parliamentary statute but from executive policy and Union Budget allocations, with implementation grounded in the cooperative-federal architecture of Indian urban governance under the Seventy-fourth Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992, which constitutionalised urban local bodies. The mission carries an indicative outlay of Rs 2,99,000 crore over five years (FY2021–22 to FY2025–26), of which the central share is approximately Rs 76,760 crore. Its overarching ambition is to make Indian cities "water secure" and "self-reliant," aligning with the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Sustainable Development Goal 6 frameworks.

Procedurally, AMRUT 2.0 operates through a reform-linked, outcome-based funding model rather than a project-by-project sanction system. States and Union Territories prepare a State Water Action Plan (SWAP) by consolidating City Water Balance Plans (CWBPs) prepared for each city, which audit existing demand, supply, non-revenue water, recycling potential, and groundwater status. The aggregated SWAP is appraised and approved by an Apex Committee at the central level chaired by the Secretary, MoHUA. Central funds are released in three instalments — broadly 20 percent, 40 percent, and 40 percent — with the second and third tranches conditional on physical and financial progress and on the achievement of stipulated urban reforms. The mission targets universal coverage of functional water tap connections to roughly 2.68 crore households across all statutory towns, and sewerage and septage coverage to about 2.64 crore connections in the 500 AMRUT cities.

The funding-sharing pattern is graduated by city size and fiscal capacity. For cities with populations below one lakh, the central share is one-third; for those between one and ten lakh it is one-fourth (with a higher one-third share for North-Eastern and Himalayan states); and for cities above ten lakh the centre funds one-fourth, with the balance met by states and urban local bodies. AMRUT 2.0 introduces a competitive Pey Jal Survekshan — a drinking-water survey ranking cities on equitable water distribution, wastewater reuse, water-body conservation, and potable-water quality. The mission also mandates a Technology Sub-Mission to scout global best practices and pilot innovations, alongside an Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign on water conservation. A digital platform tracks city-level performance, and a reform agenda spans property-tax reform, user charges, GIS-based master planning, and rejuvenation of urban water bodies.

In practice, every state and Union Territory has notified SWAPs since 2022, with cities such as Indore, Surat, and Visakhapatnam featuring among early performers in MoHUA's water-management assessments. The Pey Jal Survekshan was rolled out in 2022 across the AMRUT mission cities. Union budget statements through FY2023–24 and FY2024–25 have continued allocations to the mission, and MoHUA's Apex Committee has periodically approved expanded SWAPs. The scheme intersects with the parallel Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban), the urban counterpart of the rural piped-water programme run under the same ministry, with which AMRUT 2.0 shares the household-tap-connection objective in towns.

AMRUT 2.0 must be distinguished from several adjacent instruments. It is broader than the Smart Cities Mission (also launched 2015), which is area-based and competitive, funding pan-city and greenfield "smart" solutions in 100 selected cities rather than universal basic services. It differs from its own predecessor, the original AMRUT, in adding circular-economy elements — water recycling, reuse of treated wastewater, and water-body rejuvenation — that the first mission largely omitted. Unlike the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM, 2005–2014), which it functionally replaced, AMRUT 2.0 is reform-linked and outcome-financed rather than project-sanction driven. It is also narrower in thematic focus than the Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban 2.0, which concentrates on solid-waste management and sanitation rather than water security.

Controversies and edge cases centre on implementation capacity and federal friction. Urban local bodies frequently lack the technical and financial wherewithal to prepare credible CWBPs or to levy cost-recovering user charges, and several states have resisted reform conditionalities tied to tranche releases. Parliamentary Standing Committee reports on Housing and Urban Affairs have flagged underutilisation of allocations and slow physical progress in the predecessor scheme, concerns that recur in AMRUT 2.0 monitoring. The reliance on public-private participation and convergence with externally aided projects has raised questions about equitable tariff structures for poorer households. Groundwater depletion in cities such as Bengaluru and Chennai underscores the gap between mission targets and hydrological reality.

For the working practitioner — a UPSC aspirant preparing General Studies Paper II, a municipal desk officer, or a development researcher — AMRUT 2.0 is a case study in cooperative federalism, reform-linked fiscal transfers, and the operationalisation of SDG 6 within India's constitutional division of urban responsibilities. It exemplifies the post-2014 shift from input-based to outcome-based central schemes and illustrates the persistent tension between centrally designed conditionalities and the constitutionally devolved autonomy of urban local bodies. Mastery of its outlay, sharing pattern, and distinction from the Smart Cities Mission is examination-relevant and analytically central to understanding contemporary Indian urban policy.