The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : No projects at risk: World Bank

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Friday, Mar 14, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

No projects at risk: World Bank

Nagesh Prabhu

Seven schemes are being implemented in the State with the bank’s assistance

Bank’s team reviews progress of projects
State is fourth largest beneficiary in terms of volume of bank lending

BANGALORE: The World Bank finds “no risk” in all ongoing projects financed by it in Karnataka and said that all the projects are moving on the right track.

As many as seven projects are being implemented in the State with the Bank lending of $872 million. Except two — Karnataka Health System Development and Reform Project (KHSDR-II) and Karnataka Panchayats Strengthening Project — other projects have shown satisfactory performance, the bank said in its report to Chief Secretary Sudhakar Rao.

A Bank team, led by Rachid Banmessaoud, visited the State recently and reviewed the progress of seven projects — municipal reforms, urban water supply, watershed development, tanks, rural water supply and sanitation, panchayat strengthening and health projects. All projects are being implemented without any risk while the Karnataka Watershed Project has recorded best performance, it said.

The State is fourth largest beneficiary in terms of the volume of the bank lending in the country. The States that received the largest volume of current lending are Uttar Pradesh ($2 billion for five projects), Tamil Nadu ($1.7 billion for 6 projects) and Maharashtra ($1.1 billion for 3 projects).

The Karnataka Municipal Reforms Project ($310 million) launched in 2006 to improve the financial viability of 32 urban local bodies (ULBs) and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike and help them expedite infrastructure projects has picked up a momentum after the initial systemic delay. There has been delay in the land acquisition process for establishment of sewage treatment plants at Chickaballapur, Doddaballapur, Tiptur, Bhadravati, Sakleshpur and Madikeri, an official said.

The bank has suggested to the project officials to complete the land acquisition process, both government and private lands, before March 31 and complete the recruitment process in all project ULBs for expedite the execution.

Referring to the Karnataka Urban Water Project ($51.53 million), the bank has instructed to the Government to set up Water Council before March end to ensure better water supply in urban areas and to make the sector attractive for private players. The council, which is to be the regulator, has been conceptualised as an independent body that will take over all the functions of the Government with regard to the water to formulate policies.

On the revision of tariff, the bank said the revised tariff should be notified in all ULBs before March-end. The project’s objective was to support the ULBs to improve bulk water supplies and demonstrate the feasibility of continuous and safe water supply in pilot areas.

The Bank-aided KHSDR II project (Rs. 897.79 crore) has been also moving at a slow pace. The project has been focussing on improving health services in the less developed areas of the State and serve vulnerable populations.

The delay has been caused due to change of project director in August 2007 and preparation of detailed project reports. The bank suggested to the Government to increase financial delegation to the project director and take steps to strengthen the Project Management Unit and procurement capacity to avoid delays.

The pace of implementation of Rs. 600 crore-Karnataka Panchayat Strengthening Project has been slow due to various reasons, it said and sought the details of actions to be taken for implementing the project.

The project was being implemented in 1,343 gram panchayats in 39 most backward taluks of 14 districts identified by the Committee for the Redressal of Regional Imbalances.

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