India's Urban Affairs Ministry Splits into Two Departments, Boosts Engineer Training

Union Minister Manohar Lal announced that the Ministry of Housing, Urban Affairs and Power will operate through two separate departments – the Department of Capital Development (DCD) and the Department of Urban Development (DUD) – to strengthen institutional capacity, improve administrative efficiency and enhance urban governance across India. The restructuring is intended to focus on liveable, resilient, citizen‑centric cities and to support the government's vision of a developed India by 2047.

Separately, the Housing & Urban Development Department launched a two‑day capacity‑building programme for about 60 city engineers, town planners and consultants from 25 urban local bodies in Odisha. Held at the Odisha Urban Academy under the Mukhyamantri Sahari Bikash Yojana, the programme covered project planning, engineering best practices, quality assurance and project monitoring. Additional Chief Secretary Usha Padhee chaired the event, emphasizing the need to remove implementation bottlenecks and ensure high‑quality, timely execution of urban infrastructure projects.