Chennai, October 1
The World Bank will give $150 million loan to support the Government of Tamil Nadu’s Chennai City Partnership: Sustainable Urban Services Programme, which seeks to help strengthen institutions, improve the financial health of service agencies, and drive significant improvements in the quality of four key urban services — water supply and sewerage, mobility, health, and solid waste management.
This programme will support the Tamil Nadu Government in its efforts to transform the city and its services, while accelerating Chennai’s shift to a lower carbon and a more resilient growth trajectory. It will help Tamil Nadu Government , Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), and key service agencies adopt new approaches to service delivery and bring a renewed focus on results for citizens, according to a statement from The World Bank.
The Chennai Metropolitan Area, home to about 10.9 million people, is India’s fourth-most populous metropolitan area. Despite being an economic powerhouse, Chennai has not kept pace with growing demand for key services. The coastal city also remains highly vulnerable to natural disasters, climate change and, as the Covid-19 emergency revealed, to pandemics. “This programme heralds the start of our partnership with the city of Chennai where we will work with Tamil Nadu Government to jointly create a more climate-friendly, resilient and inclusive model for managing urban growth. The experience emerging from this partnership can inform other Indian cities and, more broadly, India’s massive urban transition,” said Junaid Ahmad, World Bank Country Director in India.
Major components
The programme’s major components are water resource management including water supply and sewerage services, urban mobility, health services and solid waste management. The scheme will increase household connections and improve the quality of water and sewerage services. It will expand green modes of urban mobility—buses, walking, and cycling—along with improvements in their quality and inter-connectivity. It will also enhance disease surveillance and improve coverage and quality of primary health care services.
Integrated planning and management of these services through empowered coordinating agencies such as a Water Regulatory Authority and a Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority will also be part of this programme. The scheme will improve the financial performance of GCC and Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board through increased revenue collection and/or reduction in operating costs.
The $150 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) is a variable spread loan that has a final maturity of 16-and-a-half years, including a grace period of five-and-a-half years.