Rainmatter Foundation’s initial grant, which commenced in October 2021, supported Janaagraha in localising climate action and advancing environmental sustainability in India’s cities and towns. From April 2024 to March 2025, our partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (DoHUA), Government of Assam, led to a State Urban Transformation Agenda for Assam. In parallel, the partnership evolved to incorporate additional priorities, with a stronger emphasis on climate-responsive urban governance and systems reform. This evolved into a deeper engagement, with Janaagraha as DoHUA’s anchor partner on the state government’s Doh Shaher Ek Rupayan (DSER) programme. The original grant was closed in March 2025, and Rainmatter Foundation renewed its support through a new four-year agreement starting April 2025.
During the July–September 2026 quarter, the State Urban Transformation Agenda (SUTrA) in Assam progressed from programme framework development towards institutionalisation and implementation readiness. Building on progress made in the previous quarter, the programme focused on strengthening institutional mechanisms to translate city-level plans into implementation. Parallel efforts advanced urban design, climate resilience, sanitation and municipal governance reforms across Assam.
Following the completion of the City Investment Framework exercise across 10 cities in the previous quarter, a prioritised list of projects was presented to the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (DoHUA) and subsequently to Assam’s Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs. Projects were prioritised based on their potential environmental, economic and equity impacts, financial sustainability, and implementation readiness. The prioritised project pipeline provides DoHUA with a reference for assessing investment priorities and identifying potential funding opportunities. For instance, the Government of Assam has reportedly announced an allocation of ₹100 crore each for urban renewal and infrastructure development in Dibrugarh, Silchar and Jorhat. The City Action Plans are being used as a reference to identify priority development needs.
Under the Councillor Leadership Development Programme (CLDP), key achievements during the quarter included a Training of Trainers (ToT) programme for five experienced trainers and councillor training sessions in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh, conducted in collaboration with the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) and the respective municipalities.
Additionally, Janaagraha’s engagement with sectoral organisations contributed to strengthening partnerships in solid waste and sanitation, and is helping formalize ties between DoHUA and sectoral partners. Janaagraha is also working with the Directorate of Municipal Administration to strengthen urban governance by enhancing the role and capacity of ward councillors through the Councillor Leadership Development Programme. To advance Public Finance Management (PFM) reforms in Assam, Janaagraha developed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to support the implementation of the Assam Municipal Budget Manual across the state’s 83 urban local governments (ULGs) for FY 2027–28. The process is expected to commence in Q3 of FY 2026–27. This will ensure the integration of budgeting with F&A in the ULGs and support the cities in moving from ad-hoc budget allocation to funding planned infrastructure development and O&M for improved service delivery.
Priorities for the next quarter include expanding the Councillor Leadership Development Programme to the remaining DSER cities through the newly trained master trainers, engaging with the Government of Assam to mobilise funding for priority projects identified through City Action Plans, and collaborating with solid waste management and sanitation partners on state- and city-level interventions.
Highlights of the quarter:
1. Facilitating the unlocking of funds for City Action Plans projects
Continuing the progress made in the previous quarter on prioritising projects through the City Investment Framework, a list of prioritised projects for each city was presented to DoHUA. In addition, an assessment of the current status of projects implemented under the City Action Plans was undertaken. Bringing together both strands of work, a final list of projects was presented to the Commissioner and Secretary and the Directorate of Municipal Administration. The list is attached in Annexure I.
Following repeated references to the City Action Plans in various funding opportunities, municipalities are increasingly convinced of the value of creating a shelf of projects for each city through a process implemented under the City Action Plans.
During one of the Municipal Planning Committee meetings in Silchar this quarter, the District Development Commissioner of Silchar requested that the 14 new wards of Silchar be included in the City Action Plan. The Silchar Municipal Corporation expanded from 28 wards to 42 wards, with its geographical area increasing to approximately four times its previous size.
2. Partnership under DSER
- During the reporting period, a tripartite MoU was signed on 26 August between Janaagraha, Saahas and Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), Assam, to support improvements in municipal solid waste management across DSER cities. Building on Saahas’ ongoing work with the district administration in Jorhat, operations have now expanded to all wards of Jorhat and begun in Nalbari and Dibrugarh. Saahas has also signed MoUs with the Jorhat and Nalbari ULGs for operational support and will work with ULGs to improve waste collection and management systems.
- Following the MoU between T&CP and C-STEP and the state-level consultation workshop, city-level inception workshops were convened in Dibrugarh and Silchar. The workshops focused on “Climate-Resilient Strategies for Urban Floods & Heat Hazards in Assam” under the Doh Shaher Ek Rupayan Programme.
- Following separate discussions with the NFSSM Alliance to build its interest in supporting Assam and with DoHUA to promote innovation and interventions to improve sanitation sector outcomes, Janaagraha facilitated the first state-level consultation between the NFSSM Alliance and DoHUA Assam to identify pathways for strengthening urban sanitation systems in Assam. The meeting was chaired by the Commissioner and Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (DoHUA), and attended by several senior officers from the Directorate of Municipal Administration, SBM, AMRUT, Jal Board, AUWSSB and Guwahati Municipal Corporation, among others.
- Under the Solid Waste Management (SWM) vertical, Janaagraha mobilised the participation of the Managing Director, Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban (SBM-U), in exploring partners to strengthen SWM systems in Assam’s ULGs. In this process, Janaagraha explored multiple partners, including Saahas and Recyclink, and took forward initiatives accordingly. Among these, Janaagraha initiated discussions with Recyclink to strengthen data-driven SWM systems in Assam. The proposed engagement may cover Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Silchar, where Recyclink’s monitoring and data dashboard is to be deployed. The dashboard will enable ULGs to track waste flows, monitor segregation and recovery, and use real-time data to improve planning, operations and overall service delivery at the ward, city and state levels. It complements Saahas’ on-ground collection and processing work by providing ULGs with a reliable evidence base for decision-making.
3. Councillor Leadership Development Programme
The Councillor Leadership Development Programme (CLDP) continued to evolve as a platform for strengthening local leadership and urban governance. Training for councillors across the 10 cities, including Silchar, where a new council is being elected, is planned for the next quarter in their respective cities. A Training of Trainers (ToT) session for five trainers was conducted on 17 July 2026 in Guwahati. The selected trainers brought experience in training, community engagement and urban development.
4. Public Finance Management (PFM)
For the Finance & Accounts strand, under which Janaagraha is supporting DoHUA with the digitisation of financial management, Janaagraha assessed the adoption of the F&A module and identified challenges in its uptake across ULGs. The findings informed the development of an F&A roadmap outlining a three-year transition towards the Double Entry Accrual-Based Accounting System (DEABAS) across ULGs.
A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to support ULGs in transitioning to function-based budgeting has been developed. The SOP was refined through multiple rounds of review with the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA), and the final version is now under vetting by the Directorate prior to publication. Simultaneously, the system integrator team is developing the state-level login for the budget module to ensure that all budgets for FY 2027–28 are submitted and approved through the online module.
Janaagraha is supporting DoHUA in undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the state’s Own Source Revenue (OSR) performance and identifying ULG-wise targets for a 5% increase in OSR. Based on this analysis, DoHUA will prescribe targets for each ULG to ensure that all ULGs have access to the 16FC performance-based grants.
Building on existing state initiatives, Janaagraha drafted state-level implementation guidelines for the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (DoHUA), outlining the financing framework, project selection process, institutional responsibilities and reform requirements for participating ULGs. The Urban Challenge Fund (UCF) offers Assam an opportunity to mobilise market-based financing for priority urban infrastructure projects while strengthening the creditworthiness and financial sustainability of ULGs. The guidelines link access to UCF support with improved municipal financial management, including the adoption of the Double Entry Accrual Based Accounting System (DEABAS), to strengthen financial discipline and enable sustainable infrastructure financing. The draft has been shared with the Finance Department for approval.