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Civic infrastructure in for Rs 1,500-cr boost

By Sumit Kumar, Section Development
Posted on Tue Jul 17, 2007 at 04:23:05 AM EST

WORLD BANK LOAN: `The government has adopted a four-point urban development strategy consisting of poverty alleviation, environment management, total sanitation, and urban resettlement and rehabilitation'

The West Bengal government is waiting for the external affairs ministry's nod for a Rs 1,500-crore loan from the World Bank to fund the improvement of civic infrastructure at the state's district towns, according to Ashok Bhattacharya, urban development minister.

The project will cover water supply, drainage, roads and sewerage, the minister told the legislative assembly Monday.

"The welfare of the poor is our aim. This is why we are borrowing this money," the minister said. He was replying to the debate on the budget for his department.

Since the Nineties, the Left Front government in West Bengal has taken a series of loans from multilateral organisations like the Asian Development Bank as well as from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Britain's Department for International Development for some big-ticket urban infrastructure projects for Kolkata.

At present, the Kolkata Municipal Corp is implementing the Rs 1,900 crore Kolkata Environment Improvement Programme (KEIP), funded extensively by the ADB.

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The KEIP, for which the loan agreement was signed in 2001, has six components: sewerage and drainage, parks and waterbodies, slum improvement, solid waste management, canal rehabilitation and resettlement.

Of the total project loan of Rs 1608 crore, including a supplementary, the ADB is funding around $257m (Rs 1033 crore), and the government and KMC the rest. Britain's DFID has extended funds equivalent to Rs 229 crore for a capacity building project linked to the KEIP.

The World Bank's soft loan of Rs 1,500 crore has been cleared by the state's finance department while the Union government has cleared it in principle.

The minister said the government has adopted a four-point urban development strategy consisting of poverty alleviation, environment management, total sanitation, and urban resettlement and rehabilitation.

"Our goal is to provide the poor with proper civic amenities. We will invest heavily in this endeavour," he said.

Bhattacharya said the government would also set up committees to monitor the satisfaction levels of citizens following the implementation of the projects.

Source- The Indian Express, 17/07/07

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