ADB to give $2 mn for urban development projects in Nagaland
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a $2 million loan for designing climate-resilient urban infrastructure, including water supply and sanitation, in Nagaland.
The Manila-based lender and the Indian Government recently signed a Project Readiness Financing (PRF) loan for designing climate-resilient urban infrastructure, strengthening institutional capacity and improving municipal resource mobilization in 16 district headquarter towns (DHTs) in the state.
“The ADB financing will ensure high readiness of the ensuing project through preparing an urban sector strategy, undertaking feasibility studies and detailed engineering designs of selected subprojects, and building capacity of state-level agencies in project implementation, resource mobilization, and anchoring reforms,” said ADB Country Director for India Takeo Konishi.
The PRF loan will help design water supply, sanitation, solid waste management and urban roads in 16 DHTs with climate-resilient features and improved access to the poor and vulnerable. Capacity building of state agencies will help augment own-resource mobilization by urban local bodies, improve their readiness for implementing the ensuing project, and initiate sector and institutional reforms.
Nagaland’s towns and cities face the long-term challenges of climate change, lack of basic amenities, and poor connectivity. Major transport routes around urban areas are severely affected by landslides during the monsoon season.
Urban roads are in poor condition without proper stormwater drainage. Most cities face acute water shortage and, except Dimapur, have inadequate sewerage or septage management system. All these issues constrain the economic development of the state, said an official statement.
The PRF facility would support key preparatory activities for the ensuing project aimed at improving urban infrastructure and services in Nagaland to help the state realize its economic potential, said Ministry of Finance’s Department of Economic Affairs Additional Secretary Rajat Kumar Mishra. The Government is committed to the development of the northeast region.
