{"id":87881,"date":"2026-07-31T12:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=87881"},"modified":"2026-07-31T13:21:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:51:43","slug":"urban-challenge-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/urban-challenge-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Challenge Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Urban Challenge Fund Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government has so far approved or accorded in-principle approval to 33 projects under the Urban Challenge Fund (UCF), Union minister informed the Lok Sabha recently.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Urban Challenge Fund\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a new <\/span><b>centrally sponsored <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">scheme of the <\/span><b>Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It <\/span><b>supports transformative and bankable urban projects<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through <\/span><b>competitive &#8220;challenge-mode&#8221;.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Financial Outlay:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Total Central assistance of<\/span><b> \u20b91 lakh crore.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Tenure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: It will be operational from <\/span><b>FY 2025\u201326 to FY 2030\u201331,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with an <\/span><b>extendable <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">implementation period <\/span><b>up to FY 2033\u201334.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under UCF, cities will be supported to do <\/span><b>projects under three verticals,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Creative development of cities<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Cities as growth hubs<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Water and sanitation<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cities will be <\/span><b>expected to take reforms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in <\/span><b>urban governance, urban finance,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>urban planning.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Features:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Centre\u2019s assistance <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">under the scheme is capped at <\/span><b>25 percent<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the <\/span><b>cost of bankable projects<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This will lead to a<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">total investment of \u20b94 lakh crore in the urban sector in the next five years.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At least<\/span><b> 50 percent<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the project cost has to be <\/span><b>mobilised through market-based sources <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">such as municipal bonds, bank loans, and public-private partnerships (PPPs).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>remaining <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">share may be contributed <\/span><b>by States, Union Territories (UTs), <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/urban-local-bodies\/\" target=\"_blank\">Urban Local Bodies (ULBs<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), or other sources.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Projects <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will be <\/span><b>selected <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">through a transparent and <\/span><b>competitive challenge mode, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ensuring support to high-impact and reform-oriented proposals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Private sector participation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will be encouraged through structured risk-sharing frameworks and benchmarking of service delivery standards.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Credit Repayment Guarantee for Smaller Cities:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In order to facilitate <\/span><b>first-time access to market finance <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for all <\/span><b>Cities\/ULBs in Northeastern &amp; Hilly States<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and s<\/span><b>maller ULBs (&lt;1,00,000 population) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in other States\/UTs, a <\/span><b>Credit Repayment Guarantee Scheme of \u20b95,000 crore <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">has been approved.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The scheme will provide a<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Central guarantee of up to \u20b97 crore or 70 percent of the loan amount (whichever is lower) for first-time loans.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>The Fund will cover:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>All cities <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with a<\/span><b> population of 10 lakh or more <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(2025 estimates);<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>All State and Union Territory capitals not covered above;<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Major industrial cities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a<\/span><b> population of 1 lakh or more<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Additionally, all ULBs in hilly states, Northeastern States<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><b>smaller ULBs <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with a population <\/span><b>below 1 lakh<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will be eligible for <\/span><b>support under the Credit Repayment Guarantee Scheme<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>In principle all cities will be covered<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> under UCF.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>News: <a href=\"https:\/\/theprint.in\/india\/33-projects-approved-under-urban-challenge-fund-lok-sabha-told\/3001146\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TP<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Urban Challenge Fund supports transformative and bankable urban projects through competitive &#8220;challenge-mode&#8221;. Read more about Urban Challenge Fund, Budget, Ministry, Features, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":116229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,22,23,5439],"class_list":["post-87881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-urban-challenge-fund","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87881"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116291,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87881\/revisions\/116291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}