Under growing financial pressure from the State’s new DBT-linked payment system, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has been forced to deposit its entire project share upfront before receiving matching funds for the ₹957-crore Pohra River Pollution Abatement Project.
Only after NMC transferred ₹39 crore through the SNA-SPARSH portal did the State and Central Governments jointly release their equal ₹39-crore share, taking the total to ₹78 crore now available for work.
The change marks a major shift in how urban infrastructure projects are financed. Earlier, both the Centre and State would release their funds in advance, giving civic bodies breathing space to start work, clear bills, and generate short-term interest before contributing their own share. That flexibility is now gone.
Under the new rule, the local body must first park its contribution in the RBI account, after which the State and Centre will match it. The move, officials say, follows the State’s debt-control and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) reforms, which are tightening the flow of grants.
For a financially stretched NMC already seeking permission to raise a ₹400-crore bank loan, the new policy has added stress to civic accounts. With contractors already mobilized under AMRUT 2.0, officials warn that even minor delays in fund flow could slow down work on Nagpur’s biggest river-cleaning project.
👉 Click here to read the latest Gujarat news on TheLiveAhmedabad.com