A High-Level Committee (HLC), under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah has approved a number of mitigation, recovery & reconstruction projects having total outlay of Rs. 4645.60 crore. It will benefit 9 States of Assam, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. To realise Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of disaster-resilient India, the Ministry of Home Affairs is providing all necessary support to states and UTs.

The Committee, comprising of Finance Minister, Agriculture Minister and Vice Chairman NITI Aayog as members considered the proposal for financial assistance to the State from National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF).

The HLC has approved the restoration and rejuvenation of wetlands plan of Rs.692.05 crore to the State of Assam. The implementation of this project will enhance wetland capacity, create flood storage, increase flood resilience, protect the aquatic environment and will help in economic growth through improved fisheries infrastructure. Out of total approved outlay of Rs. 692.05 crore for the project, central share will be Rs.519.04 crore (75%) and State share will be Rs.173.01 crore (25%). This includes projects for mitigation activities towards restoration and rejuvenation of 24 distinct wetlands of 9 districts of the Assam State spread across the Brahmaputra river system. Through a number of structural and other measures, this project in Assam will enhance water retention capacity of wetlands/Beels and will help mitigate risk of flooding and erosion.

This approval is in line with Union Home Minister’s vision for the development of wetlands for conservation and flood mitigation in Assam. The project's long-term coverage is aimed at the entire length of Brahmaputra within Assam and therefore this project would be taken up as a pilot project to establish a flood-proof Brahmaputra valley.

The HLC has also approved the Urban Flood Risk Management Programme (UFRMP) Phase-2 for eleven (11) cities viz. Bhopal, Bhubhaneshwar, Guwahati, Jaipur, Kanpur, Patna, Raipur, Trivandrum, Vishakhapatnam, Indore and Lucknow with a total financial outlay of Rs.2444.42 crore to be funded from the National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF).

The selection of these 11 cities is on the basis of their status of being most populous cities / State capitals, primarily prone to floods, as well as consideration of other physical, environmental, socio-economic and hydro-meteorological factors. The programme will complement the states in mitigating risk of urban flooding in their cities through uniform structural and non-structural intervention measures. The funding pattern will be on cost-sharing between the Centre and State as per NDMF guidelines i.e 90% from Centre and 10% from State.

Additionally, out of afore-stated 11 cities, the HLC has approved the programme designed for flood mitigation projects of Guwahati city with a total financial outlay of Rs. 200 crore out of which Rs. 180 crore will be the central share from NDMF. The activities involved for Urban Flood risk mitigation project for Guwahati cities ranges from structural measures of Interlinking of water bodies to Stormwater Management, Construction of flood protection wall, Erosion Control and Soil Stabilisation using Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) etc. as well as non-structural measures such as Flood Early Warning System and Data Acquisition System and capacity building etc.

Earlier, Central Government had approved Urban Flood Risk Management Programmes of total financial outlay of Rs. 3075.65 crore for seven metro cities viz. Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune. Further Central Government had also approved a number of mitigation projects for mitigating the risks of a number of hazards in the areas of Landslides (Rs.1000 crore), GLOF (Rs. 150 crore), Forest Fire (Rs. 818.92 crore), Lightening (Rs. 186.78 crore) and Drought (Rs. 2022.16 crore).

The HLC, also approved financial assistance of an amount of Rs. 1270.788 crores to the State Government of Assam and Rs. 260.56 crore to the State of Kerala for recovery and reconstruction activities/plan for both the states in the aftermath of flood/landslide incident of 2022 and Wayanad Landslide-2024 respectively. These recovery assistances will help the States of Assam and Kerala in carrying out Recovery and Reconstruction activities, arisen due to damage and destruction occurred during flood/ landslides 2022 and Wayanad landslide 2024 respectively.

Earlier, the Central Government had approved Recovery & Reconstruction plans for the States of Uttarakhand of Rs 1658.17 crore, in the aftermath of Joshimath Land Subsistence, for Sikkim of Rs 555.27 crore, in the aftermath of GLOF incident of 2023 and for Himachal Pradesh of Rs. 2006.40 crore in the aftermath of flood, landslides, cloudburst incident of 2023.

This additional assistance is over and above the funds released by the Centre to the States in the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), already placed at the disposal of the States. During the financial year 2025-26, the Central Government has released Rs. 13578.80 crore to 27 States under SDRF and Rs. 2024.04 crore to 12 states under NDRF to 12 States.

In addition, Union Home Minister has approved advance release of Rs. 24.40 crore, as 2nd installment of Central share of SDRF, to State Government of Sikkim for the year 2025-26.

Additionally, Central Government has released Rs. 4412.50 crore from the State Disaster Mitigation Fund (SDMF) to 21 States and Rs. 372.09 crore from National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) to 09 States.

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