UiWIN one-stop facilitator to support cities, says Minister P Narayana

Visakhapatnam: AP Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development Ponguru Narayana has said UiWIN has been designed as a onestop facilitator that would provide end to end support to cities ' from identifying bankable projects and preparing DPRs and feasibility studies to financial structuring, credit rating and municipal bond assistance, pooled finance for smaller ULBs, access to multilateral and bilateral funding, PPP transaction support, and implementation handholding through dedicated UiWIN State offices and investment support units.

By repurposing HUDCO's Pan india regional network into UiWIN State Offices, the program ensures doorstep technical support, creation and digitisation of municipal asset registers, asset monetisation strategies, O&M capacity tools, and a forthcoming UiWIN dashboard to track sector, cost, timelines, approvals, land availability and funding sources while standardising templates, vendor lists and case studies.

Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, MP and Chairman Standing Committee Housing and Urban Affairs, stated that cities need to focus on the effective management of municipal assets. Across India, many cities have valuable public assets such as land, infrastructure facilities, and service networks, which can become important sources of financing if they are properly identified, documented, and managed. He impressed upon the need to develop comprehensive municipal asset registers, explore asset monetisation opportunities, and strengthen municipal governance systems to significantly enhance the financial capacity of Urban Local Bodies.

Srinivas Katikithala, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, said over the past decade, the Government of India through MoHUA has launched several flagship initiatives that have reshaped the urban development landscape. Recent Government initiatives signal a major shift in urban development, placing Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) at the center of India's economic growth. The Urban Challenge Fund (₹1 lakh crore) aims to leverage nearly ₹4 lakh crore in infrastructure investments through reform-driven and market-based approaches.

Sanjay Kulshrestha, Chairman & Managing Director, HUDCO, highlighted the requirement of creation of all the infrastructure which had been developed over last 75 years, within one-third of the time, as the population of our cities is going to double in next 20-25 years. Such rapid urbanization needs much more urban spending to sustain the growth and in order to sustain this growth, cities must mobilize greater financial resources while also strengthening capacity absorption and governance, especially in Tier-II and Tier-III cities, through comprehensive and well-planned urban development strategies.
MoUs were also signed between HUDCO and several State Government agencies to work in synergy for the development of tier 2 cities. These partnerships aim to leverage institutional strengths, promote coordinated planning, and accelerate investment mobilisation for sustainable and resilient urban infrastructure across cities.
The two-day workshop will feature over 30 presentations during the knowledge-sharing sessions with deliberations focused on strengthening urban project pipelines, improving financial viability of infrastructure projects, and facilitating greater private and institutional investment in urban development. The Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd (HUDCO), a Navratna NBFC'Infrastructure Finance Company, under the aegis of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, has launched the Urban Invest Window (UiWIN)'a dedicated institutional mechanism designed to support Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and cities in developing bankable, investment-ready urban infrastructure projects.
As part of this initiative, HUDCO you is organising the 1st regional workshop on UiWIN. The workshop aims to raise awareness about UiWIN as a structured single-window platform that will strengthen project preparation, enable robust financial structuring, facilitate asset monetization, and enhance access to capital markets for cities. Specialists from national and international institutions, including Niti Aayog, World Bank,ADB NABFID, NIIF, IFC and other eminent private financial institutions and banks joined the workshop deliberations.

Over 150 senior officials from the five southern states, viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Puducherry, representing Urban Local Bodies, State Government departments, and HUDCO are participating in the workshop.