Bhubaneswar, April 24: The municipal corporation is set to float financial bonds to take the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) and Smart City Mission forward.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) will float municipal bonds with the state government having completed the process of providing credit ratings to all nine cities of the state included in the ambitious Amrut scheme.

The aim is to float the municipal bonds in the capital market to lure investors for different projects. The state government has completed the credit rating of nine cities - Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Cuttack, Berhampur, Baripada, Balasore, Rourkela, Bhadrak and Puri.

"We hired two consultants and completed the credit rating of all nine Amrut cities in two phases. Bhubaneswar and Rourkela are the ones included in the first phase. We were waiting for the process to end in order to begin floating municipal bonds. Now, we have decided to begin the process with the capital city," said an official of the housing and urban development department.

The capital city gets a "BBB" rating, which is considered a moderate degree of safety regarding timely servicing of financial obligations. Under this rating, an investor or the buyer of the municipal bond will take a 50:50 risk while expecting good or average returns from the bonds.

The ratings have been given on the basis of revenue collection, quality civic services, planning and execution and more.

"After being adjudged the smartest city in the country, we tried our best to improve the quality of services for citizens and think that we succeeded in it," said city mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

Jena said there are huge plans to improve the infrastructure of the city under Amrut and Smart City Mission, which needs major investment.

"It is not possible to execute the projects all by ourselves which is why we need investors. We have already started partnering with private companies while through municipal bonds, the general public will also be a part of it," said the mayor.

Credit rating of the cities is one of the proposed reform milestones under the Amrut scheme. The state government had got a reward for achieving this milestone in the first attempt by providing ratings to the two selected smart cities of the state last year.

"It is a smart move of the administration to take such a step for generating revenue for the projects. The credit rating and the assessment will not only help the administration get money from the market but also encourage them to improve their services since in absence of that, no city can get good credit rating, which will result in a loss to the administration itself," said Prabha Mohanty, a chartered accountant.