BANGALORE: The State Government has finalised a loan of Rs. 1,188 crore from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the North Karnataka Urban Sector Investment Programme to be implemented in 25 cities and towns over eight years. Hubli and Dharwad, for which Rs. 160.75 crore has been earmarked, get the highest allocation.

State Government officials held a final round of negotiations with ADB and Union Government officials in New Delhi on October 26 and 27 and finalised various components of the Rs. 1,980-crore ($440 million) project to provide basic amenities in cities and towns. The ADB will lend Rs. 1,188 crore ($264.01 million) for the project at 8.5 per cent interest.

The objectives of the project are to improve environmental conditions in the cities and towns, reduce poverty in low-income areas through access to basic urban services and improve the service delivery capacities of urban local bodies (ULBs) through institutional development, officials of the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC), the nodal agency for implementing the project, told The Hindu .

The project will be implemented in two phases. Works to be taken up in phase I are water supply, sewerage, storm water drains and poverty alleviation programmes (slum improvement, low-cost sanitation), and non-municipal infrastructure (fire and emergency services and tourism development).

Phase II

Phase II works include urban roads and non-municipal infrastructure (lake improvement).

The State Government will contribute Rs. 633.5 crore and the urban local bodies Rs. 158.3 crore, officials said.

The project, which covers a population of 4.5 million, will be executed from next year.

A sum of Rs. 527 crore has been earmarked for environmental sanitation infrastructure, Rs. 293 crore for water supply, Rs. 291.29 crore for urban roads, Rs. 38.83 crore for poverty alleviation, Rs. 99.20 crore for non-municipal infrastructure, Rs. 12.5 crore for institutional development, Rs. 140.4 crore for project assistance, Rs. 23.7 crore for land acquisition, Rs. 347. 2 crore for contingencies and Rs. 205.2 crore for interest and other charges.

A sum of Rs. 1,250.79 crore has been set aside for civil works in the 25 cities and towns.

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