Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information and Broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu struck the ‘Gong’ at Bombay Stock Exchange, marking the listing of Pune Municipal Corporation bonds. This is happening after over 15 years of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation selling the bonds for the first time in 1998. This is India’s largest Municipal Bonds program with bonds worth value of Rs. 2264 crore and any profits made in this will directly go to Pune Municipal Corporation.
Speaking on the occasion Minister of Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu said today’s striking of ‘Gong’ has far wider implications. Capturing the significance of this event in one sentence he said the sound of Gong is an echo of urban revival happening in our country now. He said as cities need more resources for addressing the huge infrastructure deficit, they need to look at newer avenues of resource mobilization and municipal Bonds are such potential tool. Such mobilization methods are under used which needs to change in the context of capital intensive urban transformation.
Naidu said that our cities are now adopting new language in the form of Credit Rating, Value Capture Financing, Transit Oriented Development etc for mobilization of resources. A good beginning has been made over the last three years and we have miles to go still. Naidu complimented Pune Municipal Corporation for becoming the first civic body to revive municipal bonds after a long period of lull. He also complimented Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his government for their support in this regard. He declared that Pune alone is now set to mobilize about Rs. 2,300 cr of which it has already got Rs.200 cr in the first tranche. More cities are set to follow. The Minister expressed satisfaction that SEBI has come out with necessary guidelines in this regard in July, 2015 and Pune is the first to come out with bonds thereafter.
This is India’s largest Municipal Bond Programme for Pune 24×7 Water Supply Project. This will also be the first issuance since the publication of ‘Issue and Listing of Debt Securities by Municipalities Regulations, 2015’ by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). With this bond programme, Pune is poised to add a new chapter in the country’s urban transformation saga based on Prime Minister’s vision of financially empowering urban local bodies.
Other dignitaries present at the ceremony were Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Arjun Meghwal, Pune Guardian Minister Girish Bapat, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis,SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya, SEBI Chariman Ajay Tyagi, Ashish Kumar Chauhan MD and CEO of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and Mayor of Pune Municipal Corporation Mukta Tilak.
