The Government of Jharkhand collaboration with World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) is expected to lead the setting up of sustainable urban sector institutions, which will have capacity to manage the expected urban growth and create commensurate municipal infrastructure in all statutory urban areas of the state, says Utkarsh Mishra, Deputy Project Director(Externally Aided-PMU), JUIDCO Ltd in an exclusive interview with Gopi Krishna Arora of Elets News Network (ENN).
Tell us about your collaboration with World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
Considering the substantial need for investments in urban infrastructure services and sector wide institutional strengthening, Urban Development & Housing Department (UD&HD), Government of Jharkhand, has collaborated with World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB). The collaboration seeks assistance for the proposed World Bank aided Jharkhand Municipal Development Project (JMDP) worth USD 210 million and proposed Asian Development Bank aided Jharkhand Urban Resilience and Liveability Improvement Project (JURLIP) worth USD 654 Million).
As per a recent World Bank funded urban sector review for Jharkhand State, the total urban investment requirement of the state across all the ULBs for municipal services such as water supply, sewerage, drainage, municipal solid waste management and urban transport amounts to Rs 13,280 crore. Herein, a broad estimation of the possible receipts from various national urban missions as well as the entitlements of the ULBs under 14th Central Finance Commission vis-à-vis the urban investment requirements of the state exhibit a significant funding gap. This emphasises an urgent need for investments in the state to improve the basic municipal service delivery and provide a better quality of life in cities in Jharkhand. Moreover, there has been a major emphasis by the Central Government for states and cities under the new urban schemes: AMRUT, Smart Cities – to explore new and alternative mechanisms for sourcing funds to meet the urban investment requirements.
“The proposed investments are expected to lead the setting up of sustainable urban sector institutions, which will have capacity to manage the expected urban growth and create commensurate municipal infrastructure in all statutory urban areas of the state”.
The proposed investments are expected to lead the setting up of urban sector institutions, which will have the capacity to manage the expected urban growth and create commensurate municipal infrastructure in all statutory urban areas of the state. The proposed financial assistance will supplement the financial aid which the state government is expecting to receive from Government of India under various national urban missions such as AMRUT, Swachh Bharat Mission and Smart Cities. It will also help the state and local governments in speedy and timely implementation of all urban infrastructure projects and urban reforms along with capacity building initiatives proposed under AMRUT.
How will Jharkhand benefit from working with World Bank and ADB projects?
The World Bank and ADB Projects envisage to support the State in taking ahead its vision of strengthening decentralisation. This will be achieved by taking an ‘Institutional Development’ approach to service improvements in urban areas with the aim of creating systems that will deliver services in the future. Both World Bank and ADB have wide-ranging experience of working in more than 100 countries including quite a few in the South-East Asia region. The project can draw upon the experience of both these multilateral development banks in improving the Urban infrastructure and strengthening institutional capacity.
These projects would aim to meet the investment requirements of priority urban infrastructure and municipal service delivery improvement projects such as (but not limited to) urban water supply, sewerage/septage management, public sanitation, storm water drainage, integrated municipal solid waste management, urban transport, street lights and other municipal utilities such as green spaces, etc. in Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).
In addition to Urban infrastructure Improvement, the experience of World Bank and ADB will help strengthen the institutional development component. These projects will aim at building resources, capacities and accountabilities of ULBs. They will also support strengthening the overarching urban policy, regulatory and governance architecture including building institutional capacity of key state urban institutions to deliver their mandate. This will allow incentivising of non-AMRUT ULBs to achieve AMRUT reforms and institutional strengthening standards.
What is the current status of World Bank and Asian Development Bank Projects?
The project agreement for World Bank aided Jharkhand Municipal Development Project (JMDP) has been signed amongst World Bank, Jharkhand State and Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The first phase of the projects worth USD 70 Million is already under execution and ranges from urban water supply projects to Urban Roads.
Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance has accorded in-principle approval for the ADB loan towards Jharkhand Urban Resilience and Liveability Improvement Project (JURLIP) for a total expenditure of USD 654 Million. This project is planned as multi-loan project. The first phase of the project with an estimated cost of USD 250 Million is in advance stage of preparation and includes urban water supply, sewerage and drainage and urban road projects. The JURLIP will contribute to “improved urban living” in select towns ranging from capital and sub-capital cities, industrial towns and economically and socially backward areas.
What are the future plans in pipeline under this project?
Both World Bank aided JMDP and ADB aided JURLIP will be designed with the strategic agenda of achieving inclusive economic growth, which will provide economic opportunities for development of region including job creation. In addition, the design of the programme is targeted for environmentally sustainable growth to improve urban environment and disaster risk management, which will be addressed in environmental examination of all the projects. The project will have a consultation and participation strategy to engage and empower the poor and women with the assistance of civil society organisation, which will be a part of social due diligence strategy. The women will be the one who will benefit most from the implementation of the programme as they can use time saved for additional job opportunities.
“The design of the programme is targeted for environmentally sustainable growth to improve urban environment and disaster risk management, which will be addressed in environmental examination of all the projects. The project will have a consultation and participation strategy to engage and empower the poor and women with the assistance of civil society organisation, which will be a part of social due diligence strategy.”
Also, implementation of the projects will target Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. The specific SDGs that are being targeted include Goal 3 (Good health and Wellbeing), Goal 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), and Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).
Last but not the least, the project designs under World Bank and ADB projects will have new technologies to ensure sustainability of the assets created under the projects; e.g. energy efficient process and equipment for water and sewage treatment plants, appropriate selection of pipe material, new urban road construction design with appropriate street furniture in rural setting, etc. Also, new implementation techniques will be adopted such as micro-tunneling for laying large diameter pipe network for fast-tracking project implementation.