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| Loan Name | Kerala Sustainable Urban Development (formerly Urban Infrastructure Development and Environment II) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | India | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Loan Number | 2226 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Number | 32300- 01 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Type/Modality of Assistance[Approved] |
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| Thematic Classification |
Sustainable Economic Growth
Environmental Sustainability |
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| Project Outcome | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description of Outcome | The expected outcome of the Project is a better environment, a stronger economy, and improved living conditions for the 2.6 million people living in the Project cities and urban local bodies (ULBs) under the Project. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Progress Toward Outcome | No major physical investments under the Project have started yet. The noticeable impact on environment, economy, living conditions for the 2.6 million people living in the Project cities and ULBs are yet to appear. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Implementation Progress | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description of Project Outputs | The Project will consist of four parts. Part A: Urban Infrastructure and Services Improvement covers urban infrastructure and services improvement, including the rehabilitation, improvement, and expansion of (i) the urban water supply, (ii) sewerage and sanitation, (iii) urban drainage, (iv) solid waste management, and (v) roads and transportation. Part B: Urban Community Upgrading will directly target poor communities through integrated interventions for basic infrastructure and services improvements and livelihood enhancement. Part C: Local Government Infrastructure Development will provide the ULBs with assistance for urban infrastructure subprojects that contributes to an improvement of the living standards of urban populations. Part D is designed to improve urban management and institutional development through capacity building activities that will help facilitate sustainability of investments under Part A. Part D: Support for Capacity Building and Project Management will also support project management and implementation activities at the project management unit (PMU) at the state level and at the project implementation units (PIUs) at the city level. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Status of Implementation Progress (Outputs, Activities and Issues) | The executing agency (EA) has established the PMU in late 2005 and PIUs in early 2007. The PMU was also assigned as a nodal agency for Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). With the help of ADB?s grant technical assistance, the PMU has prepared standard bid documents, and detailed project reports (DPRs) for solid waste management (SWM) and urban road and transport (URT) projects in each municipal corporation. Each DPR is being reviewed and approved by the respective municipal corporations. In order to facilitate project implementation, the EA is currently recruiting consultants for the technical support unit (TSU), and for design and supervision. Once consultants are successfully recruited, the PMU and the PIUs will prepare DPRs for the other sectors and activities.
GoK has already decided that the Kerala Urban and Rural Development Finance Corporation (KURDFC) will be transformed to a more efficient financial intermediary. The EA is planning to set up a task team to facilitate the establishment of financial intermediary. GoK established a task team for KLGDF in early May 2007, which consists of Secretary LSGD, Secretary (Expenditure) Finance, the Project Director, Managing Director of the Kerala Urban and Rural Development Finance Corporation (KURDFC) and Deputy Project Director (Infrastructure). KURDFC has migrated from Kozhikode to the office space next to the PMU in Thiruvananthapuram. The task team prepared a note on legal and procedural matters on establishment of Kerala Local Government Development Fund (KLGDF), and was submitted to GoK for decision in July 2007. Political consensus is yet to be achieved. GoK is currently introducing modern accounting practices and procedures to the ULBs with the ADB's grant technical assistance. This will contribute to improvement in financial management.Since the fielding of the consultants in November 2006, GoK made a good progress in accounting reform for better urban service delivery. With the consultants? assistance, LSGD formulated and notified Kerala Municipality Accounts Rules (KMAR) of 2007. The KMAR defined the new accounting procedures and structures of financial information, in accordance with the accrual based double-entry system of accounting. Based on the KMAR, the consultants developed the Kerala Municipal Accounting Software (KMAS) consists of four main functions: income accounting, expense accounting, assets accounting and liability accounting. The pilot ULBs installed the KMAS by August 2007, and has been entering the past data after data backlogs recovery, reconciliation and verification. For the current data, LSGD instructed the 7 pilot ULBs to discontinue manual recoding of accounts from 1 November 2007. One ULB achieved, and six yet to comply. Although some data entry tasks remain due to an overwhelming amount of data backlogs, reconciliation and verification, the initial scope of work has successfully completed. The TA-4497 has entered the next phase of assignment from September 2007, which supports development of the revenue software and provides on-the-job (OJT) training in complying KMAR using the KMAS till the end of Indian financial year at the pilot ULBs. The revenue software will capture demand, collection and balance of tax payments, and sends the financial data to the KMAS for consolidation. The software will be on trial run from 15 December 2007, and data entry will start. The continuous OJT will help the accounts officers to learn how to make annual financial statements at the end of financial year. These will lead to better awareness of tax collection efficiency amongst ULBs and transparency in the financial status of the ULBs. A TA Review Mission in November 2007 visited six pilot ULBs, and observed that there was general increase in awareness of accounts management and the KMAR amongst the accounts officers. The KMAS generates a variety of reports which show the current financial status of their ULBs. This inspired the accounts officers to examine and to question the meaning of the figures in the financial reports, and consequently to become more responsible for maintaining proper and accurate accounts. In other words, each pilot ULB experienced a remarkable change in the mindset of the accounts officers. The Mission assesses that inducement of such mentality changes through the material changes was a real success, The accounts officers of the pilot ULBs were eager to complete the migration to the KMAS. Such enthusiasm derived from increased awareness of the benefit of the new system, and the user-friendly nature of the computerized system. They have now high expectation on the development of the revenue software. The Mission expects that the revenue software will enable the accounts officer to raise their awareness of tax collection efficiency by systematically comparing demand, collection and balance. This will ultimately lead to better finance to urban services. |
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| Linkage to Country/Regional Strategy | The project was incorporated in ADB's Country Strategy and Program 2003-2006. It was developed in accordance with the policies of India's 74th Amendment, to devolve responsibility for municipal services from State line agencies to the local governments' municipal corporations. It also reflected India's strategy to expand development of the major urban centers of India, to provide improved access of the majority of urban dwellers to basic services. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Geographical Location | Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Kozhikode, Thrissur in State of Kerala, India | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Safeguard Categories
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| Environment | B | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Resettlement | B | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indigenous People | A | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Summary of Environmental and Social Issues |
The physical components included under the Project were selected in order to minimize land acquisition, resettlement, and relocation. Most of the proposed improvements and construction will be on land owned by the municipal corporation or by another government agency. The total land acquisition requirement is about 1.55 hectares (0.09 hectares for overhead water tanks and 1.46 hectares for sewage pumping stations). There may be a need to temporarily displace or relocate hawkers and vendors during road improvements and pipe laying for water, sewerage and sanitation, and drainage. If necessary, alternative temporary spaces will be provided nearby to minimize the disruption to the economic activities of the hawkers and vendors. The total number of people affected by the Project, and the significance of the resettlement impacts, if any, can only be estimated after the detailed design of the components.
The Project is unlikely to have any impacts on indigenous peoples in Kerala, as activities will be concentrated in urban areas where few indigenous peoples are to be found. However, because of the approach to be followed in Part C: Local Government Infrastructure Development, there is a slight possibility that indigenous peoples may be directly or indirectly affected by some subprojects. The indigenous peoples development framework (IPDF) provides guidelines on formulating appropriate development planning instruments such as indigenous peoples development plans or "specific actions¿ to address such impacts. The Project has been classified as environmental category B. As part of the project preparatory TA, initial environmental examinations (IEEs) were carried out for project subcomponents in all five municipal corporations covered by the Project. The IEEs showed that none of the proposed components would have significant adverse environmental impacts. Anticipated minor environmental impacts include some loss of on-site ecology and the conversion of small amounts of rural agricultural land; dust generation due to excavation activities; and increased vibration, noise, fumes and traffic during construction. Mitigation measures have been proposed to minimize impacts from inadequate maintenance of sewerage systems and/or gases generated during the decomposition of solid waste. Significant environmental benefits resulting from the Project include improved hygiene and sanitary conditions in all municipal corporations; better waste handling, treatment and disposal; a healthier ecosystem because of the reduction in the waste discharged into protected areas; a decrease in water losses resulting from the currently defective water distribution system; and better air quality as a result of improvements to traffic and road conditions. Environmental management plans (EMPs) were drawn up for sanitary landfill sites and sewage treatment plants to be financed by the Project. As subprojects will be identified during implementation of Part C: Local Government Infrastructure Development, an environmental assessment and review framework (EARF) was prepared. This puts in place the procedures for environmental assessment and review of future subprojects. |
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| Consultations Planned or Carried Out |
Extensive consultations were carried out during the project preparation, planning and design phases.
In March and April 2004, project preparation in each city was commenced with a start up workshop arranged by each municipal corporation in which representatives of line departments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) participated. In October and November 2004, baseline socio economic surveys in all the five municipal corporations were conducted to identify the community priority for infrastructure improvement. Reputed academic institutions from Kerala were identified to conduct the socio-economic surveys and undertake demand assessment for urban basic services. Further, city-level workshops were held with councilors, Government representatives, NGOs, area development societies and community development societies. City-level workshops were also held with councilors, Government representatives, non-governmental organizations, area development societies and community development societies. In February and March 2005, the project components were prepared in consultation with the city corporations and the line departments. The details of the identified components for each city were presented to the Municipal Corporation Council. During project implementation, consultations will be carried out in accordance with Borrower/State laws and procedures, respective ADB's policies, and the Project's agreed-upon plans and frameworks. |
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| Responsible ADB Officer |
Hiroyuki Ikemoto |
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| Responsible ADB Department |
South Asia Department |
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| Responsible ADB Division |
Urban Development Division, SARD |
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| Executing Agencies |
Local Self Gov't (Urban) Department Indraprastham, Kuravankonam, Thiruvananathapuram, 695 004 pdksudp@gmail.com |
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| Timetable | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fact-finding | 01 May 2005 to 21 May 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Appraisal | 28 Aug 2005 to 06 Sep 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Board Approval | 20 Dec 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Review Mission | 23 Jul 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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