On the occasion of declaring 2005 as “Urban Development Year”, the Hon’ Chief Minister had released the Vision Document, wherein an announcement was made to form Urban Development Mission.

About Us

With this backdrop and to ensure rightful spending of GOI's funds under JNNURM, the Government of Gujarat constituted Gujarat Urban Development Mission (GUDM) and designated the same as a nodal agency for JNNURM, UIDSSMT and IHSDP schemes.

Cities and towns have a vital role to play in the State's socioeconomic development. They are indeed the most powerful agents of transformation and change. Cities in India are fast emerging as the centre-points of innovations and hubs of economic activities. Their role in the global markets is constantly growing and they contribute more than 55% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). At the same time, most cities & towns are severely stressed in terms of infrastructure and service availability. To effectively tackle multifarious city-centric problems arising out of rapid urban growth, the Government of India has launched Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). The objective of JNNURM is to create economically productive, efficient, equitable and responsive cities. Gujarat has more than 38% of urban population with one of the highest urban population growths. The State Government has adopted reform-driven development approach and is committed to transform the urban centers into truly vibrant places for living and working. Many forward-looking developmental activities were conceived and initiated during the urban year, which would go a long way to build Gujarat's cities & towns as the “Cities of Vision”.

Sustainability of urban development can only be achieved by inclusive development all sections of people in urban areas. Almost negligible decline in urban poverty levels as compared to decline in rural poverty is a major concern for all of us. Tackling urban poverty requires a multi-pronged, a multi-disciplinary convergence of services covering housing, employment, health, education, nutrition, social security, security of tenure, gender equity and empowerment of women and so on. In the current year, we have launched Garib Samruddhi Yojana as mission for convergence of various departmental efforts for bringing about positive change in the lives of the urban poor. It is the intention of my Government to spend close to Rs. 13,000 crores for the betterment of the urban poor during the current plan period.

The participatory approach to urban planning and development through our Gujarat Town Planning and Urban Development Act is now widely accepted as a sustainable model for urban development . It has received not only the attention of many States but also that of several developing countries. It is the intention of State Government to fully leverage land as a resource for improving urban finances for development purposes. The recently announced Integrated Township Policy is a unique step which catches the spirit of participation of the private sector by providing a very transparent set of policies. It is mandatory for all integrated townships to comprise of not only physical infrastructure but also necessarily that of social infrastructure including provision of housing for the urban poor.