Cabinet approves scheme for circular economy in Smart Cities

The programme starts this year and will run until 2027, with the support of the National Institute of Urban Affairs.

“The programme envisages to support competitively selected projects promoting circular economy with focus on integrated waste management at the city level, climate-oriented reform actions at the state level, and institutional strengthening and knowledge dissemination at the National level,” the statement read.

The first iteration of the programme, CITIIS, was launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), AFD, the EU and the NIUA with a total outlay of Rs 933 crore. Twelve cities out of the 100 smart cities were selected for this.

CITIIS 2.0 will include financial and technical support for 18 cities to develop projects on climate resilience, with a focus on integrated waste management. In the second component, all states and UTs will be eligible for support to set up climate centres, creating state- and city-level climate data observatories and capacity-building for municipal staff.

According to a source in MoHUA, the projects likely to be funded through the scheme would be collection and transportation of waste, including transfer stations; automated recovery facilities; bio-methanation plants; construction and demolition waste processing plants; and sanitary landfills.

A circular economy entails markets that give incentives to reusing products, rather than scrapping them and then extracting new resources. In such an economy, all forms of waste, such as clothes, scrap metal and obsolete electronics, are returned to the economy or used more efficiently, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

An official said at least one city would be selected from each region — north, north-east, east, central, west and south — of the country.