India, ADB sign $200 mn loan agreement for expanding urban services in Rajasthan
New Delhi: The central government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday signed a $200 million loan as additional financing for the ongoing Rajasthan Secondary Towns Development Sector Project to expand water supply and sanitation systems and enhance urban resilience and heritage living in selected towns, the ministry of finance said. The signatories to the loan agreement were Vumlunmang Vualnam, additional secretary, department of economic affairs, ministry of finance, for the Indian government, and Takeo Konishi, country director of ADB’s India Resident Mission, for ADB.
After signing the loan agreement, Vualnam said that the additional financing will support the Government of Rajasthan in its commitment to reduce basic infrastructure gaps in its secondary towns by expanding water supply and sanitation services and improving livability in selected urban local bodies. “The project will incorporate various innovative and climate-resilient solutions for expanding basic urban services and incorporate nature-based solutions to rehabilitate heritage structures besides piloting public-private partnerships in the state’s water and sanitation sector to deepen private sector engagement," said Konishi.
The ongoing project, approved in September 2020, has so far laid 1,451 kilometer (km) of water supply pipes, 1,110 km of sewer pipes, and connected 68,098 households to water services in selected secondary towns in Rajasthan. The additional financing will improve water supply systems in at least seven towns by converting all groundwater sources to surface water, replacing about 700 km of leaking water pipes, installing 1,400 km of new water supply pipelines, and providing 77,000 households connections with water meters.
Read more on livemint.com
