{"id":356135,"date":"2026-02-16T16:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T11:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=356135"},"modified":"2026-02-16T16:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T11:07:00","slug":"urban-challenge-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/urban-challenge-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Challenge Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>News- <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the launch of the Urban Challenge Fund with total Central Assistance of Rs.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1 lakh crore.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>About Urban Challenge Fund<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Type of Scheme: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a new centrally sponsored scheme.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Ministry involved: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Aim: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It aims to build resilient, productive, inclusive, and climate-responsive cities that drive the country\u2019s next phase of economic growth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Funding: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The scheme provides total Central Assistance of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u20b9<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1 lakh crore, covering 25% of project cost with mandatory market-based financing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Duration: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will operate from FY 2025\u201326 to FY 2030\u201331, with an extendable implementation period up to FY 2033\u201334.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Key Features<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Market-based financing:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> At least 50% project funding must come from municipal bonds, bank loans and PPPs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Transparent Project Selection:\u00a0 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Projects will be chosen through a competitive challenge mode supporting high-impact and reform-oriented proposals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Reform-linked framework:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Funding is tied to governance, financial, operational and urban planning reforms, supported by defined KPIs and third-party verification.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Private sector participation:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Structured risk-sharing frameworks and service benchmarking will encourage private investment and efficiency.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Credit enhancement support:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A dedicated Rs. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5,000 crore corpus will improve creditworthiness of 4223 cities, especially Tier-II and Tier-III cities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Comprehensive urban coverage:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Major cities, capitals and eligible smaller ULBs, including those in hilly and North-Eastern regions, will receive support.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News- The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the launch of the Urban Challenge Fund with total Central Assistance of Rs.1 lakh crore. About Urban Challenge Fund Type of Scheme: It is a new centrally sponsored scheme. Ministry involved: It is implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Aim: It&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/urban-challenge-fund\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Urban Challenge Fund<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,3127,1760,956,12039],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-356135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-economy","category-polity-and-nation","category-schemes-and-programs","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}