KOCHI: As the fast-growing city of Kochi is finding it difficult to raise resources to meet the emerging urban crises and meet citizens’ expectations, experts and town planners have suggested various methods including the issuance of municipal bonds, tapping multilateral funding agencies like Japan’s JICA and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and transferrable development rights or TDRs, an innovative tool to generate revenues by leveraging land assets.
Keshav Varma, chairman of a high-level committee on urban planning at Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), said Kochi could raise funds through municipal bonds. As municipal commissioner of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in 1994, Varma had turned around the city’s finances and cleaned up the mess. “Without a sovereign guarantee, Ahmedabad became the first municipal corporation to raise funds through muni-bonds,” he said. Kochi can easily tap funds through municipal bonds, he said.
Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) founder chairman S Krishnakumar said Kochi should try transferrable development rights (TDRs) for its development. TDR is a technique of land development which separates the development potential of a particular parcel of land and allows its use elsewhere within the defined zones of the city.
According to Varma, Kochi is ideally placed to become an international financial centre. “Kochi’s economic geography is ideal. With learned leadership and a conscious vision, the city could dream big. To make a transformational change, the city needs Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 crore. This is doable. Kochi also needs to pull up its socks to clean up its streets and bylanes,” he said.
GCDA chairman K Chandran Pillai said most municipalities are vested with very limited taxation powers and revenue generation tools, and hence, continue to rely heavily on grants and loans from state and central governments. “If we need our municipalities to become vibrant institutions, they should be provided with stronger fiscal powers,” he said.