India : Advanced Project Preparedness for Poverty Reduction - Support for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (Phase II) (Subproject 2)

Transport / Road transport (non-urban) - Transport policies and institutional development

Water and other urban infrastructure and services / Urban solid waste management - Urban water supply

Improved urban infrastructure and JNNURM led reforms lead to higher quality of urban basic services and faster and sustained economic growth in India.

By end of 11th Five Year Plan of India (2012), the targeted investments in urban infrastructure and enabling institutional reforms envisaged by JNNURM are achieved.

As of February 2014, 638 projects under the Urban Infrastructure & Governance were sanctioned. About 36% of the sanctioned projects were physically completed while majority of the projects are at advanced stages of completion.

Since signing of the Memorandum of Agreement for Reforms and laying a common road map for reforms by 65 cities, there has been substantial progress on reform implementation at the state and local levels. Around 84 percent of state level reforms, 78 percent of ULB level reforms and 82 percent of optional level reforms have been achieved.

JNNURM was extended by the Government of India by 2 years up to 31 March 2014 to enable completion of ongoing projects and achieve the reforms.

The ADB TA completion date was further extended from 28 February 2014 to 30 April 2014, to ensure a smooth transition from the TA team to the newly formed JNNURM project management unit.

2. Improved effectiveness of JNNURM in states lagging currently and improved financial sustainability

1. Strengthen MOUD's stewardship role in the implementation of JNNURM and consolidation and institutionalization of JNNURM systems for further scaling up of urban investments and reforms achieved

Project monitoring and management provided under the TA has strengthened the Mission Directorate in areas like on-field monitoring, database management, and analysis of project reports / review progress reports, etc.. The TA support has been two pronged.

- Support towards handholding of select states and their ULBs, especially where progress was slow on project formulation and implementation, over a period of 2 years. In majority cases, the state level experts improved the States' capacity on project preparation, contracting and technical supervision, quality check during project construction. The experts also provided support on reform implementation and reporting.

- Support to the Mission Directorate on areas related to project progress monitoring and analysis, establishment and maintenance of project database, strengthening systems for management and monitoring (third party monitoring, progress reporting, city and state level management units, etc.), periodic reviews and field visits resulting in gap identification, development of knowledge products and compendiums and so on, which has enabled effective Mission monitoring and planning. The TA support has also enabled the Mission to perform activities like fund forecasting, financial planning and strengthening project pipeline, which are key to Mission's performance over the years.

Key outputs supported by the TA include:

- Compendiums (I&II) on impact of 150 projects across various sectors on improving service delivery. The documents were released during the Annual Event of JNNURM chaired by the Honorable Prime Minister of India.

- Assessment of almost 100 DPRs to document environmental safeguard measures were prepared.

Reform implementation and monitoring supported by the TA has enabled the Mission Directorate to overcome capacity constraints in this area by providing better guidance to the cities on reform implementation through the experts and building systems for effective monitoring.

Key outputs supported by the TA include:

- Establishment and maintenance of the reform database by the TA Cell, which enabled the Mission to undertake timely decisions related to progress on reforms, identify states / reforms areas where capacity building would be required, categorize states / ULBs based on their performance, develop a reform calibrated scoring system; results of which have been used for reporting and analysis, produce periodic status notes on reform implementation (including elements related to Municipal Cadre, pro-poor reforms, municipal accounting and other critical reforms) and so on.

- Identification of second phase of urban reforms beyond the JNNURM period, and the various support areas to enable the same.

- Reform Compendium I & II, prepared in 2011 and 2012, covering key achievements, implementation mechanisms and impacts of some of the reforms. The compendium which covers more than 80 reform case studies has been widely disseminated through annual events and serves as guidance document for many cities.

Capacity building is another key focus area under JNNURM supported by the TA at two levels: first, for developing and supporting a broad-based training and capacity building program for states and cities, and second, for technical capacity building of the Mission Directorate to improve Mission management capabilities.

- The TA provided support on managing training program for states and cities, identification of capacity building institutions and implementing the framework for capacity building. More recently, the TA has supported widening the focus of capacity building initiatives by preparation of roadmap for capacity building for the remaining period of JNNURM and of Capacity Building Toolkit to support states, ULBs, parastatal organisations and national/regional/state level training institutions to undertake these programs.

- With a focus on the Mission Directorate, the TA supported development of a range of technical documents which has enabled the Mission to set system and processes for implementation, and periodic updating of the same, wherever required. With adequate training and capacity building, the documents are expected to be valuable inputs towards the next phase of JNNURM. Some of the important ones include:

o Toolkits - Non-revenue Water Toolkit, Solid Waste Management Toolkit

o Guidelines - Guidance document on Treatment Process and Prospects of PPP in SWM, Procurement Guideline in SWM through PPP, model EoI and RfP documents for SWM projects.

o Note on urban sector regulation

o Revenue enhancement primer

o Guidelines for financial and economic analysis of projects, for the water supply and solid waste management sectors

o Guidelines in areas like Water Reuse and Recycle, quality control and assurance for project implementation, design and implementation of water utility reforms, and environmental safeguard handbook (submitted to the Mission Directorate)