India, Feb. 1 -- Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs.5,000 crore fund to develop the city economic region (CER) centred around temple towns and tier-2 and tier-3 cities, a Rs.100 crore incentive for municipal bonds issued over Rs.1,000 crore, and seven high-speed intercity rail corridors as "growth connectors", among others, for the urban sector during her Budget speech on Sunday.

The seven rapid rail corridors will connect Mumbai to Pune, Pune to Hyderabad, Hyderabad to Bengaluru, Hyderabad to Chennai, Chennai to Bengaluru, Delhi to Varanasi, and Varanasi to Siliguri.

Sitharaman said that one of the six areas of intervention for this budget was developing city economic regions and delivering a powerful push to infr...