Mumbai: In a bid to meet the financial requirements of the growing city, the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has ventured into the bond market and has raised around Rs. 170 crore. Following the suit of IMC, three more civic bodies of Madhya Pradesh— Bhopal, Jabalpur, and Gwalior— are also planning to tap the debt market soon.
Speaking at the listing ceremony of the IMC at NSE, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, “After the successful bond issue of Indore Municipal Corporation, we are expecting at least three more municipal corporations namely Bhopal, Jabalpur and Gwalior, to issue bonds.”
Adding to it, Vivek Agrawal, principal secretary to chief minister told reporters that within six months’ time, Bhopal, Jabalpur, and Gwalior will issue bonds. Bhopal Municipal Corporation is expected to tap the bond market within three months to raise Rs 200 crore.
Singh also added that the financial requirement of the state is huge as they have varied level of infrastructure needs. “We cannot wait for the budget. If we wait for budget we will never be able to make any progress,” Singh said. So the state decided to meet their financial requirements from other instruments like bonds and loans from multi-lateral agency, Singh said.
Singh is confident of investors’ faith in the state as it offers political stability. “…I have assured the investors that I will win the next election as well.” He reiterated that the state has a huge appetite for investments which will be used not just for smart cities but for building smaller cities too. He said that the state wants to upgrade its agricultural technologies and also look at the ways to deal with the higher agri production.