Punjab Govt to table Bills to boost urban infra

The Punjab Government will table two crucial Bills relating to planned development and improving urban infrastructure in the Vidhan Sabha tomorrow.

The Punjab Town Improvement (Amendment) Bill, 2025, aims to generate revenue from disposal of properties worth crores in 23 improvement trusts and utilising the financial resources for infrastructural upgrade in 167 civic bodies across the state. Besides, the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2025, focuses on ensuring development of colonies or areas in a planned manner.

The Punjab Town Improvement (Amendment) Bill will help the government transfer funds from the improvement trusts to municipal development fund, enabling it to utilise money in any of the civic bodies. Earlier, the Punjab Town Improvement Act, 1922, restricted the use of improvement trust fund outside its area of jurisdiction.

The improvement trusts in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala and Rajpura have properties worth crores of rupees which could not be auctioned over the years due to various reasons. Also, due to shortage of staff and inadequate infrastructure, the improvement trusts are unable to unlock their potential.

Officials in the Department of Local Government said with the amendment, the state government would be in a better position to utilise the municipal development fund at its discretion. At present, hundreds of properties and land parcels are lying unutilised or are under illegal occupation or entangled in legal disputes.

Recently, the Cabinet approved the addition of Clause 69-B to the Punjab Town Improvement Act, 1922, enabling transfer of funds received by the trust from the disposal of lands, buildings and other movable or immovable properties to the municipal development fund.

The other Bills that will be tabled in the Vidhan Sabha include the Seeds (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2025; Punjab Right to Business (Amendment) Bill, 2025; Punjab Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2025; and the Punjab Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2025.